Source
r/Judaism•
MightyAdam

Shalom, salam

Hi guys, just wanted to run by this sub and wish you all a healthy and good life.

I used to be a muslim, am an atheist now (Influenced by science from an early age and that conflicted with my muslim faith, so had to choose one or the other)

With the rise of anti semitism and islamophobia, muslims and jews need to stick to each other and stand up for one another. The muslim fundraiser for example to rebuild the jewish cemetaries really warmed my heart. The rabbi welcoming muslims in his synagogue for prayer after their mosque burned down was beautiful as well.

People need to keep that momentum going. In every possible way, interfaith relationships, no matter how small it may be can grow into something strong and powerful one day.

Dont know much about judaism, but would love to be educated on it by you guys some day.

Shalom.

Posted Mar 25, 2017, 8:59 PM UTC · edited

10622
worldhelplines-org•

Love this!

24
MightyAdamOP•

Love you too man!

15
manatee25•

Agreed! One unique thing about Judaism is that there is a sizeable number of us who hold atheist/agnostic views yet still consider ourselves fully Jewish. We see Judaism more as a culture and moral guide rather than strictly following the letter of the law. This sub tends to lean a lot more religious than my personal ideas on Judaism and I'm guessing a lot around here would disagree with me (which is fine, different strokes for different folks) but since you mentioned being a former Muslim and current atheist I thought you'd be interested. Feel free to PM me more a better explanation on reformed/secular Judaism!

17
IVStarter•

Never figured out how to PM on mobile, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. My mother was Jewish, but separated from her family in Chicago early in life due to an abusive alcoholic father. She wasn't traditional at all, and married my father who was raised catholic. She passed almost 15 years ago so I don't know the Jewish side of my family. I'm an atheist and have no interest in religion. Only recently, with the resurgence of anti-semitism have I become interested in my Jewish lineage - apparently some Glick family members left Russia in the 1870s(?) for Chicago, and that's literally all I know. Aside from a passion for punching Nazi's, that's about all I got. I'm anti-social and introverted so getting involved locally isn't super attractive to me right now, but I definitely would love to hear what your thoughts are. Thanks to you and everyone else ITT for your openness and warmth; this is exactly what the world needs today.

3
manatee25•

So I grew up in a reformed Jewish household. Both parents and all grandparents are Jewish and I went to Hebrew school, had a bat mitzvah, went to temple for the high holidays, did watered down celebrations of all the major Jewish holidays. The emphasis was really on the tradition rather than the religious aspect of it. All 4 of my grandparents were directly affected and almost killed during the holocaust which led them to hold varying degrees of belief in god ranging from some belief in a higher power to straight up atheism. At the same time, living through this persecution strongly instilled values of wanting to carry on the Jewish identity and not let it die out. So that's kind of how my family operates. When it comes to the Torah and other texts, Judaism is all about discussion, debate, and interpretation. If you want to get in touch with your Jewish side without having to talk to people in real life I would start learning the stories of the major holidays cause they are pretty interesting. And if you're into cooking look up some old school Eastern European Jewish recipes cause I feel bad for everyone who never had a Jewish grandma to cook for them.

3
CataphractoiAtheist, culturally Jewish•

Can I just comment and say that I am very surprised, and extremely happy with how open this subreddit is being in comparison to the rest of reddit, even places that claim tolerance and peace as a central part of their identity?

17
vampirepickleJew-ish•

Great post. I agree, now more than ever we must unite as human beings-regardless of religion. Salam shalom!!!

15
shiskebob(((הנשאר)))•

I completely agree - that is why I am taking courses to participate and hopefully facilitate in Interfaith Dialogue and Interfaith Conflict Resolution.

13
MightyAdamOP•

Thats beautiful man, once people look past the differences we can clearly see the similarities.

Jews and Arabs are all descendants of Abraham, we are desert folk, the languages are very similar, jews and arabs have an ancient connection to jerusalem.

And we all love hummus.

11
shiskebob(((הנשאר)))•

*Woman

I would love me some hummus on my cake day.

6
MightyAdamOP•

My bad, woman haha.

2
MightyAdamOP•

If i could i would pile as much hummus on your cake.

That sounds weird tho..

1
shiskebob(((הנשאר)))•

I thought it was a dirty, dirty come on until I reread it. LOL

1
hoffmania1•

D'aww! Thanks for stopping by! Much appreciated.

9
MightyAdamOP•

You see how much 1 positive reddit post can achieve? Imagine the 1.4 billion muslims protecting the tiny minority of 17 million jews one day.

That would be beautiful. It will take decades and centuries. People die, but movements and ideas are nearly impossible to kill. And once enough people on both sides have this idea implanted in their minds it will grow.

7
whyDoYouThinkSoYeshivish -> Modern Orthodox•

One hundred percent, our communities have so much in common that it makes sense and anyways family should look out for each other

9
DrColossus1•

Salam to you! Totally agree, let's look out for each other.

6
MightyAdamOP•

Muslims need to look out for jews moreso tbh.

Jews are heavily in the minority. 17 million i believe in contrast to the 1.5 billion muslims.

The minority needs to be protected by the majority. Muslims need to defend jews worldwide against bigotry. Jewish and muslim relations were really good a few centuries ago, what happened?

I have muslim friends that took a jewish boy under their wing after being bullied for being jewish. Isnt that beautiful?

1
StrangerSkies•

Thank you.

5
MightyAdamOP•

Youre welcome cousin.

I hope you'll have plenty muslim friends one day and defend you and vice versa from bigotry.

3
Nechama•

Beautiful sentiment. We need more voices like yours

Be well

5
[deleted]•

[deleted]

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