Tell me about Reform Judaism! (please)

I’m looking for experiences from people who are or have been part of this religion, especially those who aren’t ethnic Jews, and/or weren’t raised in the Jewish religion.

I don’t need too much of an explanation of the beliefs (I can read about those, and have been doing so); what I’m really looking for is the experience. What are worship services like? What do people wear? For those who have tried or joined RJ after being Christian, what are some paralleles and differences? What is it like, day-to-day, to be a Reform Jew?

Experiences and advice wanted; in the absence of those two, unhelpful wisecracks are, as always, cheerfully accepted. :smiley:

I can tell you about Conservative Judaism, which does have some things in common with Reform.

First, I want to point out that, if you want to experience a fun Jewish holiday, tonight would be a good night to check out a local temple. It’s Simchat Torah, and dancing with the Torah scrolls is always fun :slight_smile: They might even unroll one and have people stand around the room holding it up- I’ve seen that a couple of times, and I think it’s really cool. (Conservative and Orthodox Jews celebrate holidays on a slightly different schedule from Reform, so their Simchat Torah is tomorrow night) Here’s some info on Simchat Torah. They will probably have special services tomorrow morning, too, but IME the fun stuff like dancing with the Torahs usually happens the night before. Just bear in mind that normal synagogue services aren’t that much like Simchat Torah services.

What services are like (either on holidays or normal Friday night or Saturday morning services), how people dress, etc, is going to vary from congregation to congregation. Reform (and Conservative) Jews are OK with driving to synagogue on Shabbat and holidays, so that gives you some freedom to shop around for a temple that suits you. If you don’t like one, try another- they do vary a great deal.

In some temples, all men (and possibly some women) will wear yarmulkes, in some temples some men and women will wear them, and in some temples (rarer these days) no one will. If your temple wants people to wear yarmulkes, they will almost certainly have a bin of them outside the entrance to the sanctuary. You can buy your own at the temple gift shop (if they have one), a Judaica shop, or online. Male non-Jewish visitors to a temple should wear a yarmulke if most of the men in the congregation do. There are fringed prayer shawls, called tallits, which some men and women wear for services, but non-Jews shouldn’t wear those.

The difference between temples and synagogues: temples are almost always Reform, synagogues might be any movement. Some temples are called congregations- same thing, may be any movement. A name difference doesn’t generally imply anything about what the temple is like, IME.

Day-to-day practice also varies among Reform and Conservative Jews. Some keep Shabbat in various ways, some keep kosher in various ways, some don’t.

Some of my personal experiences on differences between Judaism and Christianity:

Holidays (including Shabbat) start at sunset the evening before the date that the holiday is marked on most calendars. There are Friday evening services, at which there isn’t a Torah reading, and Saturday morning services, at which there is.

Services are longer in Judaism (at least ones on holidays or involving Torah readings are), and people don’t show up early for them like they do for Christian services. It’s generally acceptable to show up late or leave early. If you show up on time for a morning service (this is less true of evening services, because they’re shorter), you’ll be one of the first ones there.

Services are, to a greater or lesser extent in different congregations, in Hebrew. There are translations and some transliterations (telling you how to pronounce the Hebrew) in the prayerbooks, and some synagogues have full transliterations of services for people who want them. Most liberal (not Orthodox) Jews can sound out words in Hebrew but don’t necessarily understand what the words mean, so you won’t be the only one. The Torah (first five books of the Bible) and Haftarah (other stuff from the Jewish Bible, which is pretty much the same as the Protestant Old Testament) are read in Hebrew.

In Christian services, there’s spoken stuff and hymns which are sung. Everything in traditional Jewish services is put to a melody, except for the sermon. I haven’t been able to learn many of the melodies, because I’m tone-deaf, but maybe you can.

There are more holidays if you’re Jewish than if you are Christian. There are many, many books about the holidays and how they’re observed out there. The biggies for most liberal Jews are Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Hanukkah (and, yes, Hanukkah is technically a minor holiday, but American Jews have made a bigger deal out of it in recent years).

Misread as: Tell me about Reform Sadism! (please)

“No!”