Very funny, a bit long, and right to the point. We are totally ignorant of our own traditions, history, and religion, and we continue to drop out for all sorts of reasons. It’s enough to make this grown rabbi cry and laugh, and then cry.
Granted, a sampling of ramblings from the Upper West Side is not a groundbreaking scientific study. [As if one would be needed to show how ignorant we are about basic Jewish knowledge.] Much hunch is that this would be the same video if filmed in a Jewish area of Detroit, Chicago, Miami, or LA.
LOL – ELUL!
Sarah
8/29/2007
I watched this earlier on bangitout and got a good laugh at of it. You might enjoy reading Stephen Prothero’s ‘Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t”. According to his findings, the average US American considers themselves religious (way more than the average European), but has got way less knowledge on their respective and other religions than the average secular European. Prothero makes it a point to emphasize the importance of religious knowledge. The book is an easy read, at the same time educative (on the history of RE in the US) and entertaining (a considerable percentage of US Americans surveyed believed Joan d’Arc was Noah’s wife…).
Sarah
8/29/2007
“out”, not “at”
Sorry for the typo…
Shy Guy
8/29/2007
Zabar’s Columbian blend coffee – YUM!!!! And H&H is just on the other corner!!!!
I, too, laughed but felt that crying was in order.
Esther Kustanowitz
8/29/2007
Here’s some trivia: what mistake appears in the video? And which blogger’s brother appears in the video?
Hillary
8/30/2007
At the beginning, when a guy answers “Mary Magdalene” for Jesus’ mother, they mark him right.
Leslie Bunder
9/2/2007
Of course, British Jews would get it all right
But seriously, does raise some important issues as to how much, or how little we know about our own history.
And how we address that issue.
G-D SQUAD
9/5/2007
And I think that guy might have said “kavod mother and father” and not “covet mother and father,” in which case, he should have received credit.