That’s where they keep the lox.

(And before anyone goes all Alan Dershowitz on me, clearly this was tongue-in-cheek.)

I mean would an adult ever say, with no further explanation, something like “I can’t come to the meeting next Tuesday because of Fred Sims.”??

…Dammit! You beat me to that one!

God, I just love using that word.

Gentile.

I just had a conversation yesterday with a very intelligent, capable person who thought jewish people went to church.

“Church” / “temple” / “mosque”, is there a significant difference? By any other name, it’s still just the building the cult leader makes his/her followers pay for.

I’m thinking it’d be possible for someone with time on their hands to figure out the blanked out portions of that email.

If only they had used a fixed-width font.

I do my best to be respectful of other people’s beliefs and holidays, I have a professor who is muslim, and he’s fasting for Ramadan, so I know to not offer him a piece of gum. But it’s impossible to keep up with them all if you aren’t of their faith, and it’s very unreasonable for people of that faith to be offended when you don’t know their customs.

Now if you’re the boss of an ethnically diverse group that’s a different matter…. That’s part of their job, and should be googling Yom Kippur and whatnot when it gets requested off.

I don’t think that can be the answer. Of course you’re right to say that Christianity developed out of a Jewish community, but within a fairly short period after the Council of Nicea Constantine et al. had done a fairly thorough job of overhauling the festivals, not least by superimposition over Jewish and pagan ones, and by the end of the fourth century they’re pretty much detached. So I don’t see how the development of Christianity from Judaism should lead to an assumption that Jewish holidays are more significant in this day and age to a non-Jew than, say, Islamic or Sikh festivals.

Perhaps it’s just that Judaism is traditionally better understood in the UK than other non-Christian religions.

I lol’d, because the way it was worded made me think of closeted Jewish people:

“Mom? Dad? I’m… I’m Jewish.”
“*GASP!* Have… have you ever tried not being a Jew?”
“Mom! I was _born_ that way!”

You obviously have never been to Stamford Hill on a Saturday. More black hats than at a hacker convention.

Ditto Gateshead, which houses the largest Orthodox Rabbinical school in Europe.

Lashanna Tova!!
Gmar Tov!

Thanks for explaining the Rosh Hashanah thing. But now I’m confused, what is Oy Gevalt?

Is that the one where they have to go into the tent? ;)

It does look like a name at a glance and I think Jewish tradition is to phrase descriptions of holidays or something.

I noticed the reference here is similar in nature to the one that confused me.

Jewish holiday:
“I can’t make that meeting Tuesday because of Rosh Hashanah.”

Secular/Christian Holiday:
“We can’t have a meeting on tuesday because Tuesday is Christmas, you scrooge.”

Unless you are in Hollywood, and you need to know who it is, and why Rosh is so important peeps drop meets for him….

just in case (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7feZQtf_8Q)

We have folks here who don’t know what it is.

“I understand Weinstein’s parents were upset, but it sounds so made up: YOM KIPPUR.”