Mike's Rough Guide to Judaism : Start Here

These pages began as a response to discussions in an email conference with other UK teachers. One frequent topic of conversation was the way that the daily school assembly is used from time to time as a way of teaching children about aspects of "other" (ie non-Christian) religions. I found a good deal of interest among my colleagues in the information that I was able to share about Jewish festivals. It seemed to me that a more general treatment of the subject written by a teacher, for teachers might be useful to others. So here goes...

In writing these pages I have deliberately aimed at a simple, no frills treatment giving fairly basic information with a minimum of graphics.This is very much a work in progress, and I shall be adding pages as time, energy and inspiration allow. If you have any comments, queries or disagreements about what you find in these pages please don't hesitate to contact me. If you want information about aspects of Judaism that I have not yet covered ask. I shall do my best to answer you.

A note about pronounciation: Neither Hebrew nor Yiddish use the sound that English represents as ch (as in chair). Both languages do use the sound of ch as in the Scottish loch, which is technically known as an unvoiced palatal fricative. So, if you see an unfamiliar word with the letters ch in it in these pages, it is probably pronounced in that way.