If there are others who are studying Judaism as part of a World Religions course, I found a website that is so helpful to me in getting myself straight about the different patriarchs and historical stories about the Jewish people. The Timeline of Jewish History traces the entire story of Jewish development, from the time of Adam and Eve (Jewish Year 1, or Civil Year 3760 BCE) down through the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 BCE (Jewish Year 5708). It is so helpful to see who came before whom, and who descended from Abraham, and when the events occurred that are remembered today through holidays like Purim and Hanukkah.
This timeline comes from the website Akhlah, The Jewish Children's Learning Network. It is only one of many wonderful resources for people who are learning about Judaism. It has sections about major Jewish figures, holidays, prayers and blessings, lesson about Hebrew, and great introductory material to many topics in Judaism. I highly recommend it!
I learned today that legacy preferences (strong preferences to kids of alumni) happened because quotas restricting Jews from universities became too blatant. The quotas (often set at zero) persisted in the Soviet Union till 1988 or so. I did not even know the US had them.
ReplyDeletehttp://chronicle.com/article/10-Myths-About-Legacy/124561/
Interesting--I never knew that. Thanks, Maria.
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