This discussion has me curious where everyone is coming from, I was recently told that Judaism isn't a salad bar, well it sort of is, isn't it? From my observations there's all sorts of Jews.
So what variety of Jew are you? It'll better help us understand where we are coming from.
To be fair, I'll start.
I'm a Sepharadic Jew, born in the USA, but my parents and family are from Casablanca Morocco. (You'd think with that background I'd be able to get a decent tan right
so such luck, blue eyed white guy, go figure)
So I'm pretty much secular, don't read or speak hebrew, and never had interest in practicing, (okay lost 3/4 of you now
) was told by my dad (who did practice and was religious) that we are "Conservative Sepharadic", dunno what that means exactly, and something was most probably was lost in translation as english was his second language and he learned english late in life, so what he meant by "Conservative" probably had a different meaning than your definition.
From when I did actually go to temple, (while I was still young enough to be dragged there against my will as a child) was that the rituals/services were completely conducted in hebrew, with the prayer shawls, etc.
Unlike some other secular Jews, I'm not hostile towards my brethren, as a matter of fact, I loath the self hating variety with all the vitriol I can muster.
