Enthnographic Paper

For the both of us choosing a congregation for research was a very difficult task. Considering the fact that both of us are half Jewish, we did not have any prior schooling or extensive research on this topic; we chose to study a Jewish religious community. We decided that we wanted to learn more, and perhaps even get involved with the Jewish community. We chose to study the “Sons of Israel� Congregation. It is an Orthodox synagogue that was founded in 1904. Its weekly members amount to almost 200 members. It is located on 21st and Benson avenues in Brooklyn. We decided to go to the synagogue for the first time on March 28th, which was a Friday. To our surprise the area seemed to be residential, and it was not a highly populated Jewish area.
We arrived at the synagogue late Friday afternoon. As we located the synagogue, it was not hard for us to find it because we both live near by, and it is a very large and beautiful religious center. Following the Jewish religion, we both had to wear long skirts covering our knees and fully closed shirts. As we walked inside the synagogue we had some trouble finding the rabbi’s office due to the fact that this was our first visit to a synagogue. After finding our way around, we located a rab

This ethnography research was very educational, we learned a lot of new things that perhaps we should have known, but never learned. Also it was a great life experience, and meeting new people was very interesting. One final thing that we were very surprised with was the fact that although all of the different people with various religious backgrounds lived together, they all seemed to be in harmony with one another. This experience gave us a look at the Jewish religion, which we had never experienced prior to this assignment.

Our second visit to the Synagogue was on April 19th, which was the second day of celebration of the Jewish holiday Passover. We came there during the evening, so that we could sit through the religious ritual, after which we would conduct a second interview. When we came to the religious service, we were surprised that women and men were separated. All the members were well dressed. The prayer lasted about two to two and a half hours long. When we arrived there, the members were reading the first part of the prayer from the torah. They looked serious, some with frowns upon their faces. They looked very involved and inattentive to their surroundings. Following that, the rabbi read a prayer out loud, and all of the members answered his prayers. The prayer seemed to repeat itself. Afterwards, Rabbi Krupnik read a speech in English, reminding everybody about the history of Jewish people leaving Egypt and being liberated from slavery. Singing in Hebrew was accompanied after the speech. At the end of the ceremony, the members were smiling, and clapping their hands together. When the ritual finished, the people rose from their seats, the men and women used separate exit doors. Once outside, families reunited with each other and joyfully left the Synagogue.

a rabbi by the name of Baruch Krupnik. Rabbi Krupnik was a big man; he had grey hair, a partially grey, long beard, and thick lens eyeglasses. He looked to be somewhere between mid to late fifties. We experienced a very odd feeling at the first sight of him. At the first sight of us the Rabbi’s eyes widened, and he looked at us with a peculiar stare. We came up to the Rabbi and introduced ourselves. We told him about the project and what it required us to do. We also asked him if we could interview him. After we explained to him the nature of this assignment, a big smile emerged from his face. We sat down with him in his office, and began our interview with him. We informed him that we brought a tape recorded with us. After receiving his permission to record him, we began the interview.

This assignment definitely was a lot more difficult than it first looked, but it was much more interesting than I would have imagined before as well. Since my mom is Jewish but my dad is Christian, that kind of puts me into a middle situation, the fact being I was never taught a specific religion. I was Jewish when I needed to be Jewish and I was Christian when I needed to be, and receiving presents for all of the holidays.