Community Cedar Valley Reflection Paper

I found interesting that still today in 2016, that people are so invested in other people’s lives that they would go and vandalize a synagogue with the word “Jesus” written just because they don’t believe Jesus is the messiah. People are so caught up in other people’s business it bothers me. Why can’t people just go along with their daily lives and not worry about other people. I also found interesting that people from other religions offered to help clean up the vandalism. I think that shows a strong sense of community and growth in our lives.

2. How do these readings influence (or change) your view of Judaism and/or Jews?

Being that the Judaism community is so dense and small, people of the Jewish faith have to find other ways to follow
their religion. They may be able to go to the synagogue every week in their community, but they find things that can make their home follow the Jewish tradition in different ways. Howard Gerwin and Sena Cooper are great examples of this. In their household, they never eat pork or mix milk and meat. Their twins say the “Shema” every night before bed (and almost know it by heart). They have a Shabbat dinner every week and their kids read Jewish books and are learning the Hebrew alphabet.

3. How do these readings influence (or change) your view of the Cedar Valley?

It may sound weird me saying this, but hopefully it was just some irresponsible children messing around and vandalizing.
It would really make me question what kind of community Cedar Valley is if this was grown adults trying to sabotage a synagogue by vandalizing. Just because some people don’t see eye-to-eye, doesn’t mean that you should go putting down their way of life. I am glad to see different people from the community stepping up and helping clean up after this mess, even though it never should’ve happened in the first place.

4. Jews make up less than 1% of Iowa’s population. The readings explain that keeping kosher and discrimination are two struggles Cedar Valley Jews face. Given what you have learned about Judaism so far in Unit 2, what other challenges do you think Jews in the Cedar Valley might experience as a minority faith community?

I think a big challenge in the Jewish community would be following their food ways. Stated in the article, “Around the Jewish World a Small Town in Iowa Isn’t New York, but People Figure out Ways to Be Jewish,” there was no Kosher butcher. Without that being in my community, I know it would be hard for me to stick to that way of eating, but I also was not raised up that way.

[Optional] Are there any other thoughts or comments you’d like to share? Is there anything you’d like the class to discuss about this
content?

We could discuss in the class the reasons why some people have to believe that they are the “higher up” and why people think they should have superiority over others. I think it would be a very interesting subject, since people have different opinions about different religions and ways of life.