What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew about Judaism. Robert Schoen

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       Published by

      Stone Bridge Press

      P. O. Box 8208, Berkeley, CA 94707

      TEL [phone] • [email protected] • www.stonebridge.com

      Text © 2020, 2004 Robert Schoen.

      First edition published 2004 by Loyola Press.

      Updated edition published 2020 by Stone Bridge Press.

      The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Additional excerpts are from Gates of Prayer for Shabbat and Weekdays: A Gender Sensitive Prayerbook, copyright © 1994 by Central Conference of American Rabbis, and are used by permission.

      Cover design by Linda Ronan.

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher.

      Printed in the United States of America.

      p-ISBN 978-1-61172-065-5

      e-ISBN 978-1-61172-947-4

      To the memory of my grandparents, who crossed an ocean, passed through Ellis Island, and learned a new language so that my parents, their children, and their children’s children could live in a land of religious freedom and tolerance.

       Contents

       Foreword by Alice Camille

       Preface to the Second Edition

       Preface to the First Edition

       Introduction

       Christians and Jews

       Going to Church: The Jewish Roots of Christian Worship

       Jews, Jesus, and Christianity

       The Jewish Religion

       From Orthodox . . .

       To Reform . . .

       To Conservative . . .

       To Reconstructionist

       Contemporary Synagogues and Congregations

       A Personal Observation

       Inside the Synagogue

       The Torah and the Law

       Prayers and Blessings

       Symbols—The Mezuzah and the Star of David

       The Role of the Rabbi

       The Role of the Cantor

       Jewish Education

       Confirmation

       Congregation Membership and Paying the Bills

       The Temple

       Jewish Priests

       Time for Confession

       Who’s in Charge?

       Holidays and Festivals

       Holidays and the Jewish Calendar

       Shabbat—The Sabbath

       The High Holidays—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

       Sukkot

       Simchat Torah

       Hanukkah—Is It Really the “Jewish Christmas”?

       Purim

       Passover

       Shavuot—The Harvest Festival

       Other Religious Events

       Jewish Life Cycle Events

       A Jewish Wedding

       Let’s Go to a Circumcision!

       Baby Namings and Rituals for Daughters

       Adoption