Many thanks to Esther, who posted this quiz from Beliefnet at Jewlicious in order to dispel the disturbing “more-Jewish-than-thou” attitudes certain heebs take with each other.
We don’t judge other Jews on whether they’re Orthodox, Reform, JewBu or major Kabbalah Centre donors because our own identity feels so inadequate, made up of experiences ranging from a non-observant suburban upbringing where we were the only Jewish cheerleader in the entire history of our public high school to sitting with the women as we davened at the kotel.
We’re just so damn happy to meet and talk with other Jewsy folk that sometimes we’ve had to learn the hard lesson that not all Jews are good, kind people. (Don’t tell our mother; she still believes.)
Anyway, we took the quiz and found that we fall into the category of “Tzimmes Jew”, which means we’re “highly traditional, but adapt with the changing times.” Why tzimmes, a honeyed vegetable concoction that we’ve passed over many-a time at the temple potlucks, represents this category, we have no idea.
It’s just another label on our Jewishness, which we don’t really need. All we know is tonight lots and lots of other Jews—some wearing yarmulkes and headscarfs, some wearing Giants caps and fuschia pigtails—will kindle the candles together (longitude-ally speaking) as the sun passes over their particular time meridians. We don’t need anymore self-defintion that that.
Shabbat Shalom.