Rav Lau (during his first tenure as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv) was once invited by a secular high school class to come to their chanukah party. They told him: "Rabbi, we know that you cannot drive or cook during the 8 days of chanukah so we are very honor that you have agreed to come, and we have provided you with an apartment and food for the whole holiday."
He also was asked by a high school student if Moses was a real person. The boy said that some of his teachers said yes, and and some said no.
These stories are from almost 20 years ago. They appeared in an article in the long defunct English daily, _The Nation_. I still have the article. Somewhere.
A few years ago, one of the Hebrew newspapers (Maariv or Yediot) did exactly such a test of basic Jewish knowledge with the results in print rather thsan video.
The questions that I remember were: - name the four Mothers - what is Havdalah etc. - reasonable questions
and the results were abysmal - under 50% for secular Israelis.
Yeah, it looks like it could be funny (and probably sad) but I quit the video after the first question, it's to blatantly dishonest and reminiscent of the lying polls were always offered regarding public opinion on some matter.
The name of Jesus' mother is one of the three most essential facts about Christianity. By contrast, the name of Moses' mother is way way way far down the food chain in Judaism so as to be ridiculous. Why not ask people the name of Avraham's mother?
I'm sure it would be fun to make such a video and I hope that it has some positive effect on someone, somewhere, but I personally don't really have patience for such intellectual chicanery. If you want to prove a point about Jews' relative lack of knowledge about Judaism please do it honestly, your point will still be made (unfortunately) and you'll have the good clean feeling of knowing that you weren't engaged in marketing tricks bullshit.
10 comments:
I once read about a similar set of questions given to a group of Israeli high school students. One of the questions asked was:
איזה דברים מופיעים בתוך עשרת הדברות?
One student answered:
לא ראיתי את הסרט הזה.
Got all of them. Except I added one plague. The eleventh plague was that verdraite movie with Charlton Heston that plays every Easter.
thank g*d pesach does not come once a week!
LOL!!!!!
Do not cover with neighbour's wife. LOL!
You want to set up a course for basic Jewish knowledge in Israel?
Rav Lau (during his first tenure as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv) was once invited by a secular high school class to come to their chanukah party. They told him: "Rabbi, we know that you cannot drive or cook during the 8 days of chanukah so we are very honor that you have agreed to come, and we have provided you with an apartment and food for the whole holiday."
He also was asked by a high school student if Moses was a real person. The boy said that some of his teachers said yes, and and some said no.
These stories are from almost 20 years ago. They appeared in an article in the long defunct English daily, _The Nation_. I still have the article. Somewhere.
joe: No, I'd rather do a video like this asking people questions...
A few years ago, one of the Hebrew newspapers (Maariv or Yediot) did exactly such a test of basic Jewish knowledge with the results in print rather thsan video.
The questions that I remember were:
- name the four Mothers
- what is Havdalah
etc. - reasonable questions
and the results were abysmal - under 50% for secular Israelis.
Yeah, it looks like it could be funny (and probably sad) but I quit the video after the first question, it's to blatantly dishonest and reminiscent of the lying polls were always offered regarding public opinion on some matter.
The name of Jesus' mother is one of the three most essential facts about Christianity. By contrast, the name of Moses' mother is way way way far down the food chain in Judaism so as to be ridiculous. Why not ask people the name of Avraham's mother?
I'm sure it would be fun to make such a video and I hope that it has some positive effect on someone, somewhere, but I personally don't really have patience for such intellectual chicanery. If you want to prove a point about Jews' relative lack of knowledge about Judaism please do it honestly, your point will still be made (unfortunately) and you'll have the good clean feeling of knowing that you weren't engaged in marketing tricks bullshit.
All the best and Shanah Tovah,
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
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