Not all who wander are farblondzhet

Is there a Jewish Community Center near you? Those are Jewish and secular. I know that’s not the same, but you may find some overlap. You could also try Liberal Judaism. To my knowledge it’s similar to US Reform Judaism. Even though the Reform movement has a very different philosophy from Humanistic Judaism, I find that many Reform community members have a Humanistic Jewish approach. The same may be true with UK Liberal Judaism.

If you like reading, it seems like SHJ has blog posts and even put out some book recommendations in 2020′s Jewish book month. If you prefer videos, they have a Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/societyforhj/videos

Traditionally, you could probably say tehillim (psalms) but @wenevergotusedtoegypt​ might correct me on this.

Mod here. If it’s alright, I’d like to limit responses to resources aimed at people who don’t necessarily want to be Jewish or “believe” in any Jewish approaches to Judaism. Presumably, anon is just curious about Judaism on an intellectual or “kindness to Jewish people” level. If there’s a really great resource you really want to share that doesn’t fit that restriction, please at least give a caveat (i.e., “aimed at prospective converts,” “takes a Modern Orthodox approach to our world”).

Reading about the basics of Judaism should be fine both by Jewish people and in terms of being comfortable for non-Jews. Reading about the basics wouldn’t really be a closed practice, and Judaism doesn’t tend to proselytize to non-Jews (perhaps with encouragement towards the Noahide laws as an exception).

Here are some sites I’d recommend:

MyJewishLearning (pluralistic basics)

Judaism101/JewFAQ (Orthodox, perhaps right-wing Modern Orthodox, but someone from there could say better)

ReformJudaism.org (Reform)

Chabad (Chabad perspective)

Mod here. I pretty much never answer as the mod, so nobody get used to this.

Being Asian should not stop you from converting. That said, Jewish people and communities are not invincible to racism. I can’t speak to the extent to which anti-Asian racism is or isn’t an issue in any Jewish communities because I’d be pretty unlikely to see it. If there are any Asian Jewish folks or Jewish-adjacent folks who want to chime in, you are more than welcome to.

I visited a Reform synagogue a few years back maybe(? I posted about it somewhere on my blog though) where I noticed an unusual number of Asian people on the bimah and in positions of power, including a whole family and a variety of ages. (It was maybe like 6-10 people but out of only maybe a few dozen synagogue members at that service. Usually, at communities I’ve been in, visible JOC as a whole are more like 1/20-1/75...yeah.) It was a Reform synagogue.

A low-key text study podcast like Tablet Magazine’s Take One, or a more conversational podcast like Unorthodox

A Hebrew learning app like Duolingo, Drops, or just flashcards with Biblical Hebrew (or Modern) and Aramaic words and phrases

If you are doing this at home, learn how to do some kind of craft that is or can inherently be Jewish (e.g. knitting to make kippot; making homemade cards for your synagogue’s ill, elderly or homebound members; if within practice, tying tzizit to make tallit gadol or katan as part of a larger project/group -- try to connect with funding and people who need them through a synagogue or a group like Chabad).

Mod here. I can see two questions embedded in here:

Would Christians find it disrespectful for you to dress up as Jesus?

Should Jewish people care whether Christians find it disrespectful? Do Jewish people have any issues with it besides the potential disrespect towards Christians?

I’m going to set a FOR of Christian for that first question (the moment all y’all have been waiting for!) and a FOR of Jewish for the second set of questions. Let’s all remember that anon is asking, not doing and that if you don’t have the energy to respond, someone else will likely bring up similar points.

Still would leave the “Christian hegemony” issues, but I think Christians see Santa as more secular, and Jewish people see Santa as...less deadly

Mod here. I suspect that answers may vary based on the community anon and their partner are converting through.

Respondents may want to include a communal and/or halachic FOR. I can also foresee other FORs (e.g. experience) might be relevant to this ask and, as always, respondents are welcome to include those if they would like to.

Distinguishing between norms and halacha might also be useful here, especially for communities that make distinctions between halachic male/female’s halachic obligations.

I would also ask that respondents refrain from answering if their community wouldn’t accept a non-binary conversion candidate, as their answer wouldn’t be relevant to anon. The ask box is always open to start a new conversation.

Mod here. Sorry for the long intro to follow. If you’ve been around jumblr for a while and are confident you know the drill, the tldr is to read the new bolded question at the bottom of this post.

People who are recognized as Jewish by a Jewish community believe all sorts of things. Whether someone with that belief would be welcomed into a community, tolerated in a community, or representative of any Jewish community is a whole different question... Jesus in particular is a really touchy subject in many Jewish communities, especially ones in Christian-majority areas.

In agreement with other Jewish communities, Messianic “Judaism” is not recognized as a form of Judaism by this blog. Any efforts to proselytize on this post will be met by swiftly blocking the user. The ask box is open to anyone who wants to discuss the history of Messianic “Judaism,” why it isn’t recognized, various historical and present cases around its handling by mainstream Jewish communities, etc. However, this previous ask (that I’m linking here) about Jewish beliefs around the Messiah might begin to explain why Messianic “Judaism” isn’t recognized by any other Jewish communities.

With all that in mind, I’m going to shift this ask’s question a bit towards an unanswered question that’s a bit more feasible than the entire spectrum of recognized-Jews:

Respondents, in your community, what range of beliefs around Jesus are welcomed or tolerated (e.g. a range), and established or typical (e.g the norm or ideal)? Feel free to share your own personal beliefs, talk about proof texts, etc. if you wish to do so. Community FORs may be helpful here.

Mod here. Sorry for the long intro to follow. If you’ve been around jumblr for a while and are confident you know the drill, the tldr is to read the new bolded question at the bottom of this post.

People who are recognized as Jewish by a Jewish community believe all sorts of things. Whether someone with that belief would be welcomed into a community, tolerated in a community, or representative of any Jewish community is a whole different question... Jesus in particular is a really touchy subject in many Jewish communities, especially ones in Christian-majority areas.

In agreement with other Jewish communities, Messianic “Judaism” is not recognized as a form of Judaism by this blog. Any efforts to proselytize on this post will be met by swiftly blocking the user. The ask box is open to anyone who wants to discuss the history of Messianic “Judaism,” why it isn’t recognized, various historical and present cases around its handling by mainstream Jewish communities, etc. However, this previous ask (that I’m linking here) about Jewish beliefs around the Messiah might begin to explain why Messianic “Judaism” isn’t recognized by any other Jewish communities.

With all that in mind, I’m going to shift this ask’s question a bit towards an unanswered question that’s a bit more feasible than the entire spectrum of recognized-Jews:

Respondents, in your community, what range of beliefs around Jesus are welcomed or tolerated (e.g. a range), and established or typical (e.g the norm or ideal)? Feel free to share your own personal beliefs, talk about proof texts, etc. if you wish to do so. Community FORs may be helpful here.

My name is Josh (he/him) and I’m a student rabbi living in NYC studying in the reform seminary.

There are some rabbis and cantors that work with perspective converts online and there are some online Introduction to Judaism courses,  I know that I would feel fully comfortable working with someone on their conversion via zoom if they were also active with a Jewish community (even one without clergy) and were also taking an Introduction to Judaism class.

So please go to this Shabbat service!

Please let me know if you’d like me to connect you with a rabbi or cantor who is wonderful!

Okay, well, that's technically true, halacha prohibits entering churches. But not all Jews follow all of halacha? I'm unsure why outsiders think this. Like "oh I could never convert to Judaism, I have tattoos." Like. There are Jews who have tattoos, it just isn't normative in our religious rules, but not everyone follows rules?

The nature of Christianity, in America at least, is that because Christianity is so pervasive, you assume Christian until proven otherwise. So if you see a girl wearing a hijab or a boy wearing a kippah, you know they’re Muslim and jewish respectively. But if you see me, walking down the street in a baseball cap, you won’t think much about my religion, and if you do, you’ll probably assume Christianity. After all, what reason would you have to think I’m jewish?