My Jewish Journey

Hello! My name is Evan. This is a blog where I will take notes and share posts relating to my conversion to Judaism. I follow from @evanjupiter!

[salvadorbonaparte]

Yiddish Resources

Apps and Websites

Duolingo

Mango

Memrise

Bluebird

Clozemaster

YiddishPOP

Yiddish Book Center

YIVO

The Forward

Books

Colloquial Yiddish

In Eynem

College Yiddish

Basic Yiddish - A Grammar and Workbook

Yiddish Grammar

Yiddish: an Introduction to the Language, Literature and Culture

Lessons in Conversational Yiddish

Yiddish: a Linguistic Introduction

Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library

Youtube

Yiddish Book Center

Yidlife Crisis

1 Hour of Yiddish Communist Music

The Sound of the Yiddish Language

History and Culture (Books)

YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture

Adventures in Yiddishland

History of the Yiddish Language

Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil

The Story of Yiddish

Choosing Yiddish

Words on Fire

The New Joys of Yiddish

[fox-teeth]

Happy final night of Hanukkah

inspired by a 19th century menorah in the collection of The Jewish Museum

[leahbasavraham]

[salvadorbonaparte]

Help save the Yiddish Translation Fellowship Program

I wanted to ask my followers and fellow language enthusiasts to donate to the Yiddish Book Center so that they can continue to train translators and make Yiddish literature accessible (or at least share this post if possible) 🐐

[judaismjourney]

Update: my meeting with the rabbi went really well! I think we’re a really good match tbh, so I hope for good things to come. ☺️ They recommended meeting with them once a month, and I feel bad that I wasn’t able to make a second appointment for September—I also figured they were probably quite busy! But I did manage to sneak in an appointment in October, just at the tail end of the month!

Also, my Intro to Judaism class begins tomorrow and I’m both so excited and so nervous. Partly because I haven’t been in a structured learning environment in what feels like forever, but also because I have agoraphobia and don’t leave my house much. 🥲 I literally am anxious about what clothes I own that I ought to wear, aaah!

So, barring my own anxieties, I will show up eager and ready to learn tomorrow! I already bought my notebooks and everything (stationery and supplies are one of my favorite things to buy so.. haha).

Things are moving!

[mishpacha]

The largest online encyclopedia of Jewish art launched!

It’s called The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art and can be found here!

[iliothermia]

Shabbat Shalom 💙

[judaismjourney]

Thinking about how I ran into one of my best friends growing up at a local event recently and discovered that they’re also converting to Judaism. 💙

The fact that we both ended up on this path warms my heart so much. It also means I get to have a friend to go to events with me! Here’s to hoping they’re as excited about a local Yiddish folk punk band I discovered as I am + might want to go with me to an upcoming concert 👀??

I am full of joy and excitement!!

[lekha-dodi]

For anyone working on learning to read Hebrew and familiarize yourself with the aleph-bet, I want to highly recommend this website, A Little Hebrew. I like simple tools, and this is as basic and unobtrusive as it gets, it's just a flashcard game where you match the audio to the word that adds more letters as you go on.

It's the only tool I've found with no accounts, paid subscriptions, ads, etc., just a straightforward, extremely pleasant website. Thank you to whoever made this tool!

[judaismjourney]

After quite a few years (seven, probably?) of being interested in converting to Judaism but having many obstacles come up, I finally have my first meeting with a rabbi tomorrow afternoon! I’m all sorts of nervous, mostly because I know it’s a busy time of year and I want to respect their time.

That said, I don’t suppose anyone has any advice or tips? I know that no one person’s experience will be the same as another’s, so perhaps this is an odd ask. Still, maybe there are things I ought to know beforehand that I haven’t thought of! Thank you again to this kind jumblr community for your time and your knowledge. ☺️

[mishpacha]

“Jewish food and black food crisscross each other throughout history. They are both cuisines where homeland and exile inter-play. Ideas and emotions are ingredients - satire, irony, longing, resistance - and you have to eat the food to extract that meaning. The foods of both diasporas depends on memory. One memory is the sweep of the people’s journey, and the other is the little bits and pieces of individual lives shaped by ancient paths and patterns. The food is an archive, a keeper of secrets.”

— The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty; pg. 70

[thejewitches]

Fish Head: Rosh Hashanah means head of the year. Rosh = head, ha = the, shanah = year. We eat the heads of various animals to symbolize the head of the new year. Vegans/vegetarians may also eat a head of cabbage or lettuce.

Figs: Figs are one of the sacred foods.

Leeks: One of the Simanim, represents asking for protection and cutting our enemies off.

Pomegranates: One of the sacred foods, pomegranates are believed to contain 613 kernels, representing the mitzvot as well as fertility and bounty.

Apples: Eaten to bring sweetness to the new year, typically dipped in honey or baked into a cake.

Honey: While it was historically date honey, honey is believed to be a sacred food. It is eaten at the new year to bring in sweetness. Often baked into a cake.

Dates: One of our sacred foods, eaten to bring sweetness to the new year.

The Ocean: At Tashlikh, we cast our sins into the depths. We use living waters, like the great sea.

[hindahoney]

Do you have any specific tips on learning to keep kosher? Advice like what dairy substitutes work best or a reliable place to get recipes would be great. I grew up in a house that mixes dairy and meat for most meals so any help would be greatly appreciated. If you've already answered this, could you give a link to the post? I couldn't find one, but that might be because tumblr's search function doesn't work.

Sure! Here is a post I made about keeping kosher. Substitutes are your best friend. If a recipe calls for butter, using vegetable oil instead could be better if you're eating it with a meat meal. Margarine is also a great substitute when making baked goods. Mixing lemon juice with a nut milk gives you buttermilk.

In brownies, using orange juice instead of milk makes the flavor really pop. I love doing this on shabbat so I can have a dessert after a meat meal. You could also just use any other nut milk, or oat milk (just make sure it has a pareve symbol on it, I've seen some oat milks that are still OU D because it's sometimes manufactured in dairy machines or factories). Pareve chocolate is a miracle to be appreciated. Using egg noodles or zucchini noodles are great when you want to have a meat-based dish, and pareve bread for meat-based sandwiches.

I love using vegan or vegetarian plant-based meats in my dishes.* For example, I use vegan ground beef in my lasagna, so I can still use regular noodles and cheese. Plant-based chicken is also great for skillets or pasta. You could also just use fish instead, as it's considered pareve. I don't like the taste of vegan cheese, so I'd much rather use real cheese and vegan meat, but it's always an option. If you don't have meat but still want a filling meal, using grains such as quinoa, or starches like potatoes, can help with that.

As for finding recipes, there are a few kosher cooking blogs online. To find things I usually just search whatever food I want followed by "kosher" and it's usually there. If I can't find a recipe for it, I use a regular recipe with the above substitutes to make it kosher. Buying kosher cookbooks is also a good idea. I don't recommend just searching for "jewish cookbooks" because sometimes those include non-kosher dishes, so search specifically for kosher cookbooks.

*Some Jews have customs that don't allow them to eat vegan meats due to abiding by the spirit of the law, and the fact that the appearance of eating something not kosher could mislead others. It is best to discuss this with your rabbi if you think this may be an issue.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

I'm giving a lecture on Jewish Paleontology (Jews in Paleontology, Paleontology that involves Judaism, the whole SheBang) today (the 1st) at 3pm EDT! Should be a fun time! Feel free to join! (It is today, it says past event because I had to postpone it)

[gay-jewish-bucky]

I stumbled on this beautiful and moving folk-inspired setting of Hashkiveinu, composed by Hannah Gundersheim (the young Jewish woman in the video, who is a queer Jewish educator and musician), and instantly fell in love, so I wanted to share this song with all of you.

[thejewitches]

Matching Rainbow Cosmic Magen David Necklace & Earrings

[anonymousdandelion]

Hydration reminder for those who will be fasting for Tisha B'AV tonight and tomorrow!

Start drinking water now, and don't stop until sunset. :)