Distinguishing Between Sexism and ReligionEssay Preview: Distinguishing Between Sexism and ReligionReport this essayINTRODUCTIONOne of my first assignments after my arrival to Florence was to keep a journal of my direct experience of Italian society and culture, with a special focus on gender. Subsequent to receiving the assignment I remember thinking to myself that I had no idea how to do that, but figured that I would catch on. On the contrary, it took me longer than I thought it would to understand this project. Staring off I did what was easiest and wrote about my culture shock; looking back on it now, the most difficult part was the transformation from culture shock to noticing normal everyday occurrences. I was finally able to do this towards the end of September, which was also around the same time I went to the synagogue. When I arrived for the services I was overwhelmed with things I noticed. Approaching the synagogue I noticed it was a spectacular building that was clearly built with elegance. I moved towards the doors and realized that I was not able to sit with the male friend I arrived with. We parted ways as I made my way to the corner of the hall and passed through two red curtains. Walking through these curtains was like walking into another world; this world was bizarre to me because it made me feel isolated. The women were located all the way to the right of the synagogue, where there was a fence like divider put up between the men and women. It was extremely hard to hear, let alone to see anything. This was probably the reason why all the women were chatting and not bowing their heads in silence like the men. I could not understand why the men had the privilege of seeing the rabbi, was this an example of sexism? This incident made me extremely curious to what the Jewish society, especially women, thought of this separation and how women are treated with in the religion overall. My curiosity was the reason I chose Jewish women in the Florentine society as my focus point for my research paper. I make the hypothesis that the Jewish women of Florence are offended that they are so separated from the men and the center of prayer in the synagogue; I am going to investigate whether this is true or not?
RESEARCH METHODSTo investigate these opinions of the Jews, my best option was to talk to them on a first hand basis. I had to admit, this idea was not very appealing to me. My nerves and shyness towards strangers caused me to be skeptical about this process. After I could not procrastinate any longer, I built up my courage and walked towards the synagogue. My first stop was a restaurant called Ruths and to my surprise the restaurant was closed until Monday; the doors to the synagogue were also closed with no one around them. Slightly panicking on the inside I was looking for my next best plan of action. I saw a rabbi and his wife walking into something that looked like an office and asked them if they knew of anyone I could interview. This man and woman were so welcoming that they calmed my nerves as they talked to me about where I am from. Ironically they were also from New York and their son lives in the same town as me! The rabbi blessed me, which completely rid me of my cowardice, and I asked his wife if she would mind if I interviewed her. Being the wife of a Rabbi, I figured she would have a fascinating perspective on my hypothesis. Her name was Julie and right away she made me feel a sense of comfort when she invited me to come to dinner that night at the Shabbat House. Watching her interact with her husband I could tell she was a strong woman and definitely had power within her family.
Towards the end of my interview with Julie, the owner of Ruths Restaurant, Gerry, came to talk to the Rabbi. The Rabbi explained to him that I was doing interviews for a school project and Gerry volunteered to be interviewed. I walked over to Ruths with him and started my interview as he cooked with his wife, Amy, who I also interviewed afterwards. I thought interviewing both a husband and wife would generate very interesting answers whether they were similarities or differences. Also I thought that having a mans point of view would help develop my project from the different point of views. Both Gerry and Amy were puppet players in the puppet theater before owning and managing Ruths Restaurant, which they have owned for the last ten years. Gerry is from Prague and has lived in Italy for the last thirty years of his life, while Amy was born and raised in a small town near Siena. Right away I could tell Gerry was a kind man, he offered me tea and coffee many times throughout the interview. Amy was not as easy to read since she was very quiet when I first met her; she kept herself busy cooking and cleaning while I interviewed her. I noticed that towards the end of the interview she was more relaxed because she was starting to laugh and make jokes.
To develop my interview I started off finding background information on my informants. This background information included where they were born, where they are living now, and what their profession is. After learning a little bit about them personally, I moved onto questions that I developed from my curiosity after visiting the synagogue the first time. I started off asking about Judaism in Florence with questions like, what is the Jewish community like in Florence and what is it like being a Jewish Italian? I then moved onto the topic I was most interested in, men and women in the Jewish Religion. I asked my informants if they saw any major differences between men and women in the Jewish religion and then if they saw any major differences between men and women in the Italian society. I inquired about the divider put up between the men and womens side, questioning how they felt about it. I also questioned if they have ever heard someone make a negative comment about this divider. The last question I asked my informants, which created a surprising look on their face, was if there was anything that they do not agree with in their religion.
ANALYSISJulie and Amy answered similarly when asked about the Jewish community in Florence. Julie pointed out that it is mostly elderly people and both ladies mentions that their community is very small, only about 500 Jews. These responses were very different from Gerrys who talked about the responsibilities within the synagogue. Gerrys response related the Jewish community to the Catholic community; he stated that in the Catholic religion people do not have obligations but instead they obligate the priest to do things and in Italy the Jews give more importance to the Rabbi. Gerry thinks that in the Italian Jewish community the rabbi acts similar to the priest. Considering Gerry is from Prague, he answered the question what is it like being a Jewish Italian in a way of comparing it
The Answer:
The question was an interesting one because in the past people didn’t usually ask questions about being Jewish, but for some the question was very interesting: is it possible to have more Jewish people, especially in Rome?
To answer that question the first group asked whether they were Jewish. The answer was: very likely, but we only know of people who were Jewish. In Italy today (about 70% of people are Jews) there are very few people who were Jewish, mostly young people from the Middle East. However there was also many Jewish women who are married, which made people think a lot of other things about Jewish women. I think all of these questions were very interesting and quite interesting and I felt like one of the things that the interviewer was trying to figure out was this: in order to determine an identity for a Jew, you are going to have to look for one Jewish person. So I was a little surprised at the results when Amy and Gerry were asked about the relationship between Jews, their relationship to Jewish culture, and then the question. The answers were different. When Amy asked what is the Jewish religion of the interviewer she said it is a “cultural religion” that is a Jewish culture. Amy replied that you have to know about Judaism through education. Gerry asked if there is something in Judaism which is Jewish and then was asked if there is anything in a culture which is not Jewish. Amy made clear that one of the big stories of Europe today is the rise since the Holocaust, the fact that many people are more tolerant now from both the left and the right.
Gerry responded:
What I have been saying for the last twenty years is not very clear. I have become one of the very few Jewish people to say it. It is difficult to say something like that out of respect in an interview. I mean it’s difficult to say what you are talking about at the moment because there is a very good correlation between when you say something and where it has occurred. The more we see it coming out in more and more places of Europe the more important it becomes and the easier it becomes for us to relate to it. In the interview we have to see it from people who are not people who are Jewish, most of the time that is by the way it is not the Jewish people who will be coming out of that as an actual ethnicity. In general they will not be getting involved and that is not very good. That was very important, this is something which is not easy to talk about, but to deal with it on a deeper level. For me as a Muslim women, I really like having a cultural understanding of Judaism. One of the things that is great because it’s not hard to tell is how it came into being. We cannot even say that Islam was founded in Medina (our homeland). We can only say that the culture became more and more important as Muslims became more sophisticated in how they deal with it in their lives and in their identity.
If you do the same thing in Italy today but have no cultural understanding of the Jewish community then you’re saying your idea of a Jewish identity isn’t really Jewish anymore with an