Unhinged anti Jewish sign in Portland Suburbs

Ik it's a bit of a stupid question like when people ask "how to get rich" or something.

But I really don't know what I'm gonna do with my life.

I'm 21 now, and after over 2 years of working at a register in a kosher store. I kinda quit as I'm making about $25-30k a year after taxes and ma'aser. It's not like this specific store had anywhere to move up in as far as I was able to tell. Dunno if I made the right choice leaving. And I always had grand plans of building a company, and becoming rich one day (I mean who doesn't), but I doubt that can happen as I'm coming from a yeshiva (chabad. so no diploma or English studies or anything) and I spent the past two years doing something that doesn't teach me any skills. It's not like I have money to go to college, and besides. I wouldn't even know what courses I would take or anything. And I'm just wondering if I give up on any sort of hope for building something big, and just do like everyone else, and work a job the rest of my life.

However. I don't even know what job will pay enough to live a frum life. Like it seems you need to be a multimillionaire to even survive in a tiny apartment. And good luck ever owning a house or anything. And especially assuming you make the average salary in America‽

I just feel so lost. I thought I can figure it out if i had more time in my day when I quit, but I don't even know where to start or what to do. I see so many people just scratching it out their whole life making care minimum to live. Call me spoiled or something. But I just can't fathom that. And my parents were also just making a bare minimum. But I can't imagine having to live the same way. I'm also very quiet, and have a hard time asking people these questions.

It's kinda weird to say as a man. But I'm slightly tearing up here wondering what I'm ever gonna do. I'm like always sitting in Dreamland in my head, thinking how successful I'll be. And how big of a corporation I'll build. and everything else like that. But I just can't be in reality, and when I try to be. I don't even know what I'll do.

I just feel like a bum that can't achieve my dreams. Maybe it's just media or something that makes you think you can. But I don't know.

And then I'll need to get married one day, and I won't even know how to support a family or anything.

I don't even know exactly what I'm trying to say. I just need some perspective or something. Whenever I ask people. Everyone likes talking about their little "pieces of wisdom". Nobody actually gives practical advice. (I do internalize what they DO say. But it's still not much)

And ik obviously that realistically, it's all up to hashem. But I still need to try. No?

Sorry if this post doesn't make much sense. I'm kinda just writing how I feel, as I go.

Only one generation has to hide it from their daughter or have the daughter not learn of it for whatever reason (death, adoption etc)

In Bnei Brak, the city council has decided to divide one of the sidewalks into separate sections for men and women. I actually have a great deal of respect for the Haredi community. In the ongoing Israeli debates over religion and the military draft for yeshiva students, I generally remain neutral because I believe that this part of Jewish life also deserves respect in a Jewish state. Whenever discussions about the ultra-Orthodox, their lifestyle, and related issues come up, I usually don't take part in the bashing. But when I see something like this, I simply lose my patience. One of the things I love most about Judaism is that, even in its most religious circles, it has generally not been characterized by fanaticism. Tzniut has always been part of Jewish tradition, of course, but I don't think it was ever taken to this kind of extreme. Yes, men and women are separated in synagogues by a mechitza, but historically it has usually been a low partition that did not completely block visibility. Yes, there are standards of modest dress, but they were never intended to completely wrap women from head to toe. Yes, there are restrictions regarding physical contact, but nowhere was this taken to the point of dividing an entire public sidewalk into separate male and female sections. This recent direction of Haredi thought genuinely worries me, and I find it alarming that at least part of Jewish society seems to be moving in a direction that reminds me more of modern-day Tehran than of the Jewish tradition I admire. So I'd like to ask the Orthodox (!) Jews in this subreddit (both Haredi and non-Haredi): What do you think about this decision? Do you see it as being in the spirit of Jewish tradition? Is this really halakhic? Would you want something like this in your own community?

I’m writing this because I honestly don’t know who else to talk to about it, and I need to get it off my chest.

Even though I grew up in a religious home, back in high school and my late teens, I was messing around a lot. I was dating casually, messing around with girls, and basically living a double life. Eventually, I made the conscious decision to take my Yiddishkeit seriously, recommitted to being frum, stopped doing all of that, and I’ve been living this lifestyle fully for a while now.

But here’s the struggle: even though I know in my head that this Torah path is where I want to be, I miss that past life like crazy sometimes.

I know I should be focusing on marriage and the shidduch system—which is a whole other beast and honestly incredibly exhausting—but when the process gets lonely, my brain immediately defaults to: "Remember how fun and easy it used to be?" The desire to just go back to what I once had takes over at times.

It’s a weird mental loop. Sometimes I wish I had never stepped out of the box to begin with. If I didn't know what I was missing, I wouldn't have this desire. I feel like I only crave it because I actually experienced it. It’s like having a taste of something and then being told you can never have it again, whereas people who stayed on the straight and narrow their whole lives don't have that specific memory bank to fight against. It feels like a constant battle between what I know is good for my soul/future and the muscle memory of my past.

Has anyone else who grew up religious, messed around, and then recommitted dealt with this? How do you quiet the nostalgia and cope with the FOMO of your own past life while trying to build a holy, Jewish future?

I wanted to invite a good number of friends, most of them more observant than me, to my house for a barbecue this Sunday. It would be chill, all food would be kosher (my family is Conservative but we keep very strictly kosher) I figured it would be nice.

I only was reminded yesterday, maybe a few hours before I was about to buy all the meat, that it is the 9 days of Av and chances are very few people would eat at the barbecue.

It is my fault for forgetting about the 9 days, but I am a little disappointed in my guests for not mentioning it at all. They know I am not as observant but never thought to bring up to me that I had set the date for a barbecue at one of the few times they couldn't eat meat.

Thankfully we've rescheduled but if I hadn't been made aware, over 3/4 of my guests would have signed up for a barbecue and not eaten any meat.

i had frummies over for VHQ milchig veggie food (no fish) and was trying to find a music stream of acapella or choir music to play low in the background, but most cheat with instruments.

have you found anything like i describe yet, if so link or search terms would be appreciated. i'm looking for an hour meal long play stream, not any one 3-5min song to just keep looping.

I am an unaffiliated Jew, originally from Toronto. And over the years I have periodically felt called to become more spiritual and/or to connect with the Jewish community. But these impulses always result in disappointment.

And here is what has caused me to feel alienated from my Judaism: I’m not Orthodox and I don’t speak Hebrew… so clearly a liberal denomination is more appropriate for me. But then there’s the unpleasant fact that reform and conservative synagogues in Toronto charge money to become a member… a LOT of money, many thousands of dollars per year. And they also charge a fortune for tickets to attend services on the major holidays - like $800 for a Kol Nidrei. I have never been wealthy enough to join one of these big liberal shuls… nor was I willing to go thru the humiliation of applying for financial aid and having to share my financial situation with the synagogue.

Even if we could afford it I probably wouldn’t join on principle: a synagogue should be welcoming to all Jews in the community, and donations should be pay what you can. Not “tickets” not requirements for “membership” like it’s some kind of country club.

For me, that ship has probably sailed anyhow… I’m now living in a Mexican village with a catholic wife and the town has not enough Jews for a minyan. But I shared all this because I think that this practice of charging large sums of money for the privilege of practicing one’s Jewish faith is patently offensive and maybe somebody will read this and do something about it

Like if one of your parents was technically “half Jewish”. I’m curious.

Hello. I started observing Shabbat almost a year ago now, and want to share what's changed:

• work week goes by faster
• time slows down on Shabbat
• Shabbat is the linchpin for the week
• sleep more on Saturday, disconnect from temporal affairs
• look forward to the time spent on - study, family

As R. Joshua Heschel articulated in The Sabbath, Shabbat is really a palace in time, a celebration of time, of the eternal, and that raises it above all other holidays

I recently reported this story for The Forward, and it has remained with me.

Frank Kurzinger was a German Jewish refugee who returned to Europe in an American uniform during World War II. During the Battle of Mount Belvedere, his friend Del Riley called for a medic. Frank responded. Before he could reach him, he stepped on a landmine and was killed. He was 21 years old.

Because Frank identified as Catholic on his dog tags out of fear of what would happen if he were captured as a German born Jew, he was buried beneath a cross. Eighty years later, Operation Benjamin restored a Star of David to his grave.

Along the way, they also reunited Frank’s family with the family of the Christian soldier whose life he had tried to save.

I think what stayed with me most was seeing zachor lived out in such a tangible way. The work wasn’t only about correcting a historical record. It was about restoring someone to his family and to the Jewish people before his story disappeared.

I’d love to hear what others think about this kind of work. Have any of you followed Operation Benjamin or come across similar efforts to recover forgotten Jewish stories?

https://forward.com/news/832811/operation-benjamin-grave-frank-kurzinger/

Positives, as in the do's, or else the do not (like murder, theft) would dominate (I hope)

In my mid twenties (f) and want some advice.

Initially, the sages already knew that, at some point, spiritual philosophies and esoteric teachings would become more accessible and popular in our societies. However, I feel that what is happening now is not something positive. I’m not skeptical or particularly conservative on this issue, but once complex religious subjects become mainstream, the amount of misinformation increases significantly.
Today I saw a video about “celebrities who changed their religions,” and, unsurprisingly, it was full of falsehoods and misinformation. Antisemites have already been accusing us of all kinds of things for a long time, and exposing our religion even more only fuels those misconceptions.
if u want understand about that, study and buy SERIOUS books.

I'm modern Orthodox and my husband and I are both bal tshuvas. We are also both vegetarian. We have many secular and many religious friends. With our secular friends there's times where we are face with difficult situations about what to do in parties. Do we just eat vegan if kosher food isn't available? Is it actually breaking kosher if I eat vegetarian in a non kosher restaurant? I mean aren't heshers really a fence to not break kashrut?

Just trying to be an authentic Jew and a good person and ally struggling with it all. Thank you!

Does anybody else read the Talmud on what Jewish practice, allegedly, used to be like and kind of find past practices to be more interesting and theatrical. Things like the Simchat Beit Hashoevah as described in the Talmud seem a lot more festive than modern practices. Anybody else have some past Jewish practices they wished still existed?

I know it’s a custom to abstain from meat. Tbh kinda don’t know what to do since I eat meat with everything.

Are y’all who observe used to it? Do you have a go to meatless dish?