As one of the few Jewish students at KTS, I've had my fair share of questions that have made me realise just how much difference there is between Jewish culture and the culture of other religions, or indeed atheism.
On the surface, the differences seem minimal, trivial even. However, the more I’m involved with the community at the synagogue I attend in London, whilst continuing to attend KTS, the more differences arise.
I’m not saying that I expect people to be fluent in the cultures of other religions, as that would be unrealistic and unnecessary. However, I am still caught off guard by these occasional questions, which I’ll mention later.
These gaps in knowledge cannot be attributed to the religious education system at our school - in my experience it has covered all major religions at some point or another. It might be the case that people do not retain this information if it isn’t directly relevant to them - I am certainly guilty of this myself as admittedly. I know much less about Islam, for example, or Buddhism, than I would like to, as I rarely have to participate in their practices and traditions.
So what are the differences and misconceptions, then? Well, for starters, Jewish culture is more varied than some people think - there are different subsections of the religion that view the core ideas of Judaism differently. In the more traditional Orthodox Judaism, the rules of the Torah (the Jewish holy book, or rather, scroll) are followed strictly, without question. This is the most traditional form of Judaism, and the one that people tend to know the most about. Orthodox Jews almost always keep kosher (they follow rules regarding preparation and consumption of food) and wear the traditional clothing that has become synonymous with modern Judaism - for instance, the black hats that some Jewish people wear in public, or ceremonial shawls - called tallit.
However, I am a part of the Movement for Reform Judaism, one that was founded relatively recently in the scope of Judaism as a whole, in 1958. Generally speaking, Reform Judaism views the writings of the Torah in a more modern light - occasionally adapting some aspects of the religion to a modern day context. In fact, as part of the coming-of-age Bar Mitzvah (or Bat Mitzvah, for girls) ceremony, my synagogue requires that the young person writes a short analysis of the portion of the Torah that they read on the day, and in my analysis I essentially challenged the Israelites’ seemingly blind following of unreasonable demands made by G-d*. This sort of thing would probably be frowned upon in more traditional forms of Judaism, but on the day of my Bar Mitzvah several members of the synagogue committee voiced their approval of the approach I took in relation to this. Reform Judaism also focuses more on music than the more traditionalist denominations of Judaism, and I am lucky enough to be part of a community that is home to many fantastic musicians, meaning that Friday night services are often filled with the sound of acoustic guitars, talented singers and the occasional saxophone or even African drums. This means that synagogue services are genuinely a nice place to relax at the end of a long week, and the synagogue embraces this, encouraging people to come along to have fun and feel part of the community.
Other than these clear main differences between Judaism and other religions, and between the different types of Judaism, there are some other, less clearly defined differences that I notice between the Reform synagogue that I attend in London and everyday life in Baldock. I think the fact that everyone at my synagogue has shared common experiences due to their religion and culture brings everyone closer together, meaning leadership events, summer camps and Torah study groups have an innate sense of belonging - it is easy to pick up where we left off as we have this part of our lives in common. Whilst it is easy to form relationships with people at school that you enjoy spending time with, this requires finding people with similar interests and views as yourself, whereas everyone at a synagogue, or indeed any religious place of worship has a shared heritage that brings everyone together. I do not think these ideas are unique to Judaism in any way - in fact, I would imagine that many people reading this would identify with some of the themes I have highlighted, particularly if they have a strong connection to their own religious, cultural or ethnic group.
*Note: In Jewish texts, the word G-d is written as such out of respect and reverence - a similar approach is taken towards the Hebrew spelling and pronunciation.