UTMC

With all the hoopla the media heaped upon us recently about the old pope/new pope thing, and with the general constant drone of information regarding the "Church" (scandals and whatnot) on a near daily basis, I have grown curious about why we never hear anything about the Jewish faith? I mean, supposedly you folks own the media, is it just because you don't want to air your dirty laundry and so you throw up the Catholics as a smoke screen to keep yourselves hidden? Or is it due to the lack of a centralized leadership similar to the Vatican political sphere? It seems like with every article be it political, social, whatever there is at least one interview question to the man on the street that evokes an answer that begins with "Well, as a christian..." but I cannot think of the last time I heard someone start a comment with a similar hebrew-themed caveat. And the lack of any ongoing scandal reports removes the regular comments about how "This makes me question my Jewish faith..." as it does for Catholics.
Please keep in mind I am not asking this as a way to hide some underlying anti-semitism; I am an agnostic and really am just a seeker of understanding. I don't really subscribe to the theory of Judaism controlling the media, it is just a convenient trope to throw out, if it offends anyone I sincerely apologize.

I wouldn't say that you "never" hear about aweful things happening in Jew land. Just not nearly as often as with catholics and football teams. Rabbis can get married can't they? That probably helps.

I'm not Jewish, but I'll try and speculate. I suspect we don't hear much about what you describe because ... there just aren't that many Jews around.
Also, we're perhaps not hearing that much from them this week because they're busy celebrating.
According to Wikipedia, there are about 13.5 million Jews in toto. That's less than one fifth of one percent of the world's population. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., they number in the billions.
There's only so many column inches, and anything the media reports on must be considered interesting for the reader/viewer by someone. Even if there was a bunch of scandal in the Jewish religion like there is in catholicism, it would hardly get reported nearly as much because, once all the stuff about scandal in the Christian religions has been covered, serving the interests of the Christian majorities in our respective countries, there'd be very little room left to cover it, if any.
You don't hear that much about scandal with the Jehovah's Witnesses either, do you.

And I think I've got an idea why, perhaps, a Jewish person wouldn't be as automatically inclined to announce their faith as a Christian might be. Christianity teaches it's adherents to proselytize, to spread the word. Even, and really especially, if no one wants to hear it. It's how the culture of Christianity developed over the past two millenia, it's right there in the "holy book". This is the truth and everybody else better believe it!! It's how most, if not all, countries in the "western" world were run, from the original Roman Empire onwards. An adherent to Christianity, one who takes it seriously and isn't one of those submarine-christians who only come out for easter and christmas have internalized the certainty that, as a Christian, they are right.
Adherents of Judaism, during the same two millenia, were at best left alone - if they kept quiet. I'd imagine that would bring about a culture not inherently comfortable with being out and proud. Someone raised as a Jew in a predominantly Christian country, especially if they are aware of recent history, not even the last few thousand years, has a good chance of having internalized the idea that it's best to keep quiet about religion.
At least that's how I perceived it thus far. I could be wrong, Jews everywhere might be announcing their faith every time a microphone is shoved in their face. We just may not notice for the reasons in the first paragraph.

As it is, I would like to know how close or not this idea is to the actual situation. I can wait till Wednesday for answers, of course. Happy Passover!

Ummmm BSH, you haven't heard any news on Israel lately? Cuuuuuuuz just sayin.....kind of a lot of Jewish folks there, and quite a bit of news too.

careful, there...you're confusing Jews with Zionists...they are not the same

12ci wrote:careful, there...you're confusing Jews with Zionists...they are not the same

He does have a point. Not in equating Judaism with Zionism or Israel. But that is what the media does, often enough, and even if they don't - many people do. Even in a media outlet where it's the office rule not to make that equation, many working there will still make it. Subconsciously. And when they see a news item relating to a topic specifically dealing with Jews or Judaism, they may not think "We've got enough about Israel in this issue already, no need for another Jew topic.", but they may feel it. Not-self-reflecting and narcissistic as so many people are, they may even be actually and quite honestly believe they're not making that equation, they could probably even provide evidence of how they don't. Half the time, they may actually not. But only half.

Mk3 wrote:Ummmm BSH, you haven't heard any news on Israel lately? Cuuuuuuuz just sayin.....kind of a lot of Jewish folks there, and quite a bit of news too.

Yes, but that's not strictly about the goings-on of the Hebrew faith as an entity, but rather a conflict involving Jews.
I guess I never considered it a numbers game, or else was naive when the media would blather on about the 1.2billion Catholics in the world, I assumed the headcount was pretty equal among the big 3.
So for my further edumacation, how is the Hebrew faith structured? Is there one supreme Rabbi wearing a funny yarmulke and speaking with the voice of Yahweh on earth? Shame on my for not paying attention during theology class in high school, but I honestly don't know.

Bigshankhank wrote: Yes, but that's not strictly about the goings-on of the Hebrew faith as an entity, but rather a conflict involving Jews.
I guess I never considered it a numbers game, or else was naive when the media would blather on about the 1.2billion Catholics in the world, I assumed the headcount was pretty equal among the big 3.
So for my further edumacation, how is the Hebrew faith structured? Is there one supreme Rabbi wearing a funny yarmulke and speaking with the voice of Yahweh on earth? Shame on my for not paying attention during theology class in high school, but I honestly don't know.

While not a Jew, I'm married to one so I've gained quite an education over the years. There are plenty more expert than I, but here's what I can tell you:

There are approximately 13 million Jews worldwide. About 50% are in Israel, 40% in America, and the rest scattered around (rough numbers). If you count "The Big Three" as Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, then yeah. Jews don't rate on that scale. For comparison, there are approximately twice as many Sikhs as there are Jews.

The Holocaust effectively cut the number of Jews in half (6 million dead). This should provide some insight as to why the Israelis get a little "tetchy." Not saying they're "right" in all instances by any stretch, but once you've had your global population cut in half once -- in living memory -- it leaves its mark on ya as a culture.

No, there is no supreme Rabbi. In fact, there are some very complex (sometimes hostile) relationships between the progressive Jews and the Ultra-Orthodox (a.k.a., the Black Hats). I won't even try to explain all that right now, but believe me, it's weird to someone who didn't grow up with it but easily on par with any intra-Christian feud. However, ever since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (circa 70 C.E.) the Jews have not had a real central authority (hence "The Diaspora.")

I'm not qualified to really explain Judaism's structure, but I can correct you on the word "faith." That is something that doesn't enter into it. I know that sounds strange to say about a religion (at least to someone who was raised Protestant), but essentially Judaism doesn't care so much about what you "believe" as what you do; e.g., Reconstructionist Judaism does not necessarily "believe" in some omnipotent god, as he/it is virtually irrelevant to living life according to the Torah.

Jews do not proselytize, as they do not believe they have "the only way to god." They were "chosen to receive the Torah" (hence the moniker "The Chosen People") but do not feel it necessary to convert anybody else. This appears to be true of all Jewish denominations.

Again, as someone who was raised a Protestant (Presbyterian/Methodist-ish) I was basically taught "Jews are like Christians without the Christ part," which is simply horseshit. That said, learning about Judaism has taught me a great deal about Christianity and why it's so internally conflicted.

If you're actually interested in reading something about it -- which is also illuminating about Christianity and, to some extent, Islam -- check out this book. (Probably available in your local library.)

--Jaeger

And, as if on cue... just stumbled across this.

--Jaeger