Reply to Any recommendations on synagogues in Fauquier/PWC where I can learn more about Judaism?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Any recommendations on synagogues in Fauquier/PWC where I can learn more about Judaism?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi OP! There is a synagogue in Fauquier called Fauquier Jewish Congregation: [url]https://www.fauquierjewishcongregation.org/[/url]. You should feel free to check it out, but maybe wait a month at this point. Next week begins a month-long holiday season (including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah) and the rabbi will probably not have time for outside inquiries. But maybe mid-October, please call or email to set up a meeting with the rabbi or drop in on a Shabbat service to learn more.

MyJewishLearning ([url]https://www.myjewishlearning.com/[/url]) is a great non-denominational resource for you to get started learning more about Judaism. You can livestream Shabbat services on Friday nights and/or Saturday mornings, depending on the synagogue. There's actually a streaming option through MyJewishLearning, or you can look into some of the big names in synagogues around the country. Try watching Rodef Shalom (Reform) in Falls Church for Friday night or Park Avenue Synagogue (Conservative) in NYC on Saturday morning. Heads up: Saturday morning services in the Conservative movement are long...like 2-2.5 hours.

There's also a moderated Facebook group called "A group where non-Jews can ask questions about Judaism and Jews can answer" that is a better source for answers to questions about Judaism than DCUM.

Online learning is a great place to start. Just be aware that there can be a lot of in-group language that is difficult to pickup on your own. Also, lots of conflicting information about Judaism from within Jewish circles, as you can already see from the comments here. Different "denominations" will tell you different things about what Judaism says or what their denomination believes vs. what other denominations believe. The comments from PPs about converting and then not being accepted if you didn't do it right are a mostly Orthodox thing, because you have to convert under Orthodox guidelines with an Orthodox rabbi to be considered a halachic (religiously legal) convert. They don't always identify themselves as Orthodox and just present it as a problem you might run into within Judaism as a whole. This is mostly because they believe the other denominations aren't doing Judaism correctly/halachically, so they feel it's ok to speak for the whole religion as the only ones who are doing it right. I'm sure there are similar theological disagreements within the Catholic Church and certainly within different Protestant denominations of Christianity.

For the starting point/learning you're interested in, I'd start by checking out MyJewishLearning now and reaching out to your local rabbi in Fauquier next month. Those two things should set you up with a good foundation to know what you're looking for and how to proceed. If you just want to learn and explore, maybe find a comparative religion class online. If you think you might be interested in converting sometime later, talk to the rabbi about what that entails and what kind of Jewish life you would want to lead, so that you can convert under the appropriate auspices.[/quote]

Excellent response, thanks so much!! I will definitely check everything out 🙂[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics