Informed Judaism: Difference between revisions

OK what about her Bat Mitzvah? You know, the characters were confused by the whole thing, and how they learned about her traditions. Which never got mentioned before or since.<ref> This happens in real life a lot, too.</ref>

And that's the problem. A character who practices [['''Informed Judaism]]''' will perform acts that most people can recognize as being Jewish, in contrast to the non-Jewish characters, but they don't show any more subtle signs of Judaism, even for an assimilated Jew, even the cultural aspect. Their Judaism becomes an [[Informed Attribute]]. The characters listed on this page are Jewish because the writers ''tell'' us, they don't show us, possibly because [[You Have to Have Jews]].

This is often a trope that pops up in a number of [[Western Animation]] [[Christmas Episode|Christmas Episodes]]s; due to the [[Animation Age Ghetto|nature of the shows' audience]], the [[Executive Meddling|powers that be]] will want to place [[An Aesop]] in to show that the characters keep a [[Token Minority|diverse]] set of friends or peers. As a result, a character's Judaism is mentioned at some point in the episode, or perhaps a menorah will just be shown in the background, in order to keep up that diverse appearance. After all, [[Viewers are Morons|who really knows]] [[Did Not Do the Research|what other religiously affiliated holidays]] [[Small Reference Pools|are celebrated by a large enough group of people]] in the mid to late period of December? This will in fact be the only mention of religion throughout the episode (if not the series) , as Christmas itself (assuming the name is used at all) will not be depicted as having any religious significance, but rather just be a "[[Do They Know It's Christmas Time?|Warm, Feel Good Time]]", thus making this revelation of a major character feel shoehorned in. This is also despite the fact that since the Jewish calendar is a lunar one, there is no guarantee that Hannukah and Christmas will in any way overlap: Hannukah could be completely over way before Christmas starts.

Of course, there is a place between [['''Informed Judaism]]''' and [[Anvilicious]]. A character doesn't need to shout "Oy, how meshuggenah, a golem! I'm ferklempt!" to be non-informed Jewish, and likewise, not every character who has a Chanukkah Special is informed. It's more of a ''gestalt'' of the sense of the character. [[Yiddish as a Second Language]], for example, can be a clue...though, of course, pushing any element too far lands you back here.

This has an element of [[Truth in Television]]: Some Jews in countries where they've been able to assimilate increasingly practice their religion only on the most important holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and only celebrate Chanukah to have a winter holiday. They don't keep Kosher or observe the Sabbath. A practitioner of Reform or Reconstructionist Judaism -- quiteJudaism—quite common in America -- isAmerica—is especially likely to disregard most forms of Jewish ritual, including the Kosher laws. "High Holy Days Jews" are the Jewish equivalents of "Christmas-and-Easter Christians." That said, even many of these still show the [[Judaism|cultural aspects]] of Judaism, often missing from these characters.

[[wikipedia:Who is a Jew%3F?|It is also true that Jews are not only people who practice Judaism]]. Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: '''people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion.''' Therefore, someone can be a Jew and no one else would know unless they asked. Many Jews do not do any religious rituals, and some even have Christmas trees ("Chanukkah bush").

** Interestingly, a short story from a Marvel [[Christmas Special]] comic book a few years prior to this reveal had Ben Grimm dicussing the difference between Christmas and Hanukkah with a little Jewish girl. [[Retcon|This story seemed to imply that Ben is not Jewish himself]].

* While the Basterds themselves of ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' are identified as being of Jewish descent, they don't appear to be practicing Jews and aren't that much different from the Americans, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100804063740/http://galusaustralis.com/2009/09/1770/inglourious-basterds-enthralling-but-lacking-in-jewish-content/ which has been criticized by some reviewers].

** There are several smaller hints, particularly from Jake, if you notice the descriptions of his family dinners. In this case it's more a function of the stories themselves because we never get any reference to holidays for any of the other characters either. In fact all we know about any of the other characters' faiths is that Cassie's family has a pastor and that Marco's mother sang in the church choir.

== Live -Action TV ==

* Willow Rosenberg from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Jewish name, check. Talks about her very observant father (who won't even let her watch ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'') as she nails crosses to her wall ,<ref>not for religious reasons, just to keep out vampires</ref>, check. Responds to "what are you doing for Christmas" with "Being Jewish. Duh." And...that's it. In seven seasons, she only ever does one thing that's a Jewish custom or practice without a neon sign blaring "Jewish! Different!" And let's not get started on the whole "Wicca/witch/magic" thing.

** Tiny Jewish Santa! Season five. They only seem to remember when Christian-norming comes up--butup—but then, since Willow is distinctly non-practicing, when else would it come up? Some demon that doesn't want to use Jewish blood for a sacrifice? Talk about awkward thing to air.

** She sometimes on The Suite Life (more frequently in On Deck) acts and talks like an [[Alter Kocker|old Jewish lady]].

* ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'': On receiving his new [[Cool Bike]], Jack declares it's like Christmas come early. Bridge (who also got a new bike) answers that, since he's Jewish, it's more like Chanukah came early. This is the only time Bridge mentions he's Jewish during the series -- andseries—and he impressively manages to tell us this information in the most ham-handed way possible.

* Gordo from ''[[Lizzie McGuire]].'' In the episode where this is most present, he up and decides to become a Bar Mitzvah -- forgetMitzvah—forget the years of studying that this actually requires.

* John Munch in ''<nowiki>[[Homicide: Life on The Street]]</nowiki>'' and ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' has mentioned Judaism on occasion but insists that "the only thing Judaism and I have in common is We don't like to work Saturdays". He has, however, displayed knowledge of the Torah and the Kaddish and appears to hail from a conservative Jewish community. Both the actor and the real-life inspiration are Jewish as well

* George in ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' is really only shown as Jewish through the Star of David he wears and the few times he mentions it. Justified though in that he became unobservant after being bitten, since he felt that Judaism frowned on being a werewolf.

** Josh, his counterpart on the American series, has approximately the same level of observance.

* ''[[Power Rangers Zeo]]'' had a [[Christmas Episode]] where a special guest character celebrated Hanukkah. Being [[An Aesop]], they were all hit with the [[Added Alliterative AppealAlliteration|bias blaster]] and became ethnocentric. Tanya of course celebrated Kwanzaa, despite actually being from Africa.

** Also, Moishe the Oofnik, the grouch on the Israeli version of the show, ''Shalom Sesame'', is explicitly said to be Oscar's cousin.

* This trope appears in -- ofin—of all things -- thethings—the 2008 [[Muppets]] [[Christmas Special]], ''[[A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa]]''. Zoot, saxophonist for the Electric Mayhem, shows up for the Christmas Eve celebration toting a menorah and greets the hostess with a calm "Shalom." Floyd the guitarist observes the menorah and remarks that he'd never been aware that Zoot was Jewish.

* Susan Ivanova from ''[[Babylon 5]]'', though it is stated that she is solidly non-observant. (She does sit shiva in one episode, though.)

* Shylock from ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' might count if the play was written today; though he constantly is called "Jew" and gives his famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" soliloquy, we rarely see any evidence of his religion--toreligion—to modern eyes, at any rate. In Elizabethan England, [[Values Dissonance|greed, usurious banking, and refusal to betroth his daughter to a well-bred Christian suitor were practically the definition of "Jew."]]

* Choo-Choo Bear of ''[[Something *Positive]]'' is Jewish. We've seen comics that featured pictures of him at his Bar Mitzvah, and one where he and his cousin Twitchy-Hug explained Passover to the audience. Only thing is... Choo-Choo is a ''cat''. A boneless, hairless, gelatinous cat.

* Sam from ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' -- her—her religious identity is only ever mentioned in the [[Christmas Episode]]. It's even worse with her parents who fill the mold of [[Acceptable Targets|stuck-up WASPs]]. Though this can be considered a case of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]] in that there are many Jewish people who act like [[WAS Ps]]WASPs (hence the [[wikipedia:Jewish-American princess stereotype|Jewish-American Princess]] stereotype).

* Harold from ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''. In one episode, he is lectured by his rabbi for stealing a ham, with more emphasis on breaking Jewish dietary restrictions than the theft itself

* In a ''[[The Mighty B!]]'' episode where Bessie and Penny keeps sneaking into Bat Mitzvah parties, we learn that Portia Gibbons is (probably) Jewish when Bessie sneaks into the Bat Mitzvah party of Portia's cousin.

* Billy wishes the audience a happy Chanukah at the last possible minute in ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy|Billy and Mandy Save Christmas]]'' claiming that's what they celebrate at his house and rubs in the fact that he gets more presents.

* Jude on ''[[Sixteen|6teen]]'' showed no signs of being Jewish until one of the [[Christmas Episode|Christmas Episodes]]s where he said he had to get home because of Hanukkah. There is some irony that Jude was the name of one of Jesus' friends/apostles (and no, he's not the same as Judas). Not to mention Jude is German for Jew.

* Mipsy in ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'' mentions transferring funds from a Bat Mitzvah fund in one episode.

* [[Stephen Fry]] claims to have used his Jewish ancestry to make himself seem more exotic and interesting as an adolescent, but has never actually practiced Judaism and admits to have known boys who's "Jewishness probably means much more to them then it did for me"