Holidays
This is a period of time in which 49 days are counted, beginning on the second day of Passover and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the 'fiftieth day.'
What is the Omer?
This is the Hebrew term for charitable giving
What is tzedakah?
This is the number of books in the Torah
What is Five?
This is the prayer inside the mezuzah.
What is the Shema V'Ahavta?
This Jewish item means "dome" in Hebrew.
The Yiddish term for it translates as a type of "skullcap"
What is a kippah?
[NOTE: Yiddish = yarmulke]
These are three ways in which one celebrates the Lag Ba'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer.
These are two Jewish holidays that include the value of inviting in strangers or those who are in need.
What are Sukkot and Pesach?
This is the name of the Jewish Bible (all three sections together)
What is the Tanach (תָּנָ״ךְ)?
Torah (תּוֹרָה, literally "teaching")
Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets")
Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים, "Writings")
This is how one signs the Shema in ASL
What is [Sign the Shema in ASL] ...?
This is a Jewish prayer shawl
What is a tallit?
This "Feast of Weeks" is a holiday that has a double significance: marking the wheat harvest, and commemorating the anniversary of the day when G-d gave the Torah to the nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai (Matan Torah).
What is Shavuot?
These are two Jewish holidays that include the theme of standing up for the oppressed.
What are Chanukkah and Purim?
(NOTE: Also would accept Pesach)
This "little town" was a settlement with a large Jewish population which existed in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. One is the setting for "Fiddler on the Roof"
What is a Shtetl?
This Song of the Sea was reputedly sung by the Israelites after their crossing the Red Sea in safety, and celebrates the destruction of the Egyptian army during the crossing.
What is Mi Chamocha?
These are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are strapped to the arm and the head by some Jews.
What are tefillin?
These are some ways in which Shavuot is celebrated.
Acharait mnemonic:
Aqdamut - the reading of a liturgical poem during Shavuot morning synagogue services
ḥalav (milk) - the consumption of dairy products like milk and cheese
Rut - the reading of the Book of Ruth at morning services (outside Israel: on the second day)
Yereq (greening) - the decoration of homes and synagogues with greenery
Torah, engaging in all-night Torah study (tikkun leil shavuot)
This is a Jewish holiday that includes themes of environmentalism.
What is Tu Bishvat?
This is the name for a type of violent riot aimed at the massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, especially Jews, in Eastern Europe
What is a pogrom?
This is the name of a tefillah that is said, generally, when doing or experiencing something that occurs infrequently from which one derives pleasure or benefit (especially if it is the first time the event has been experienced that year)
What is Shehecheyanu?
This is the Hebrew term for a Jewish circumcision ceremony, and literally means "covenant of circumcision"
What is the Brit Milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה)?
This is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (by the Neo-Babylonian Empire) and the Second Temple in Jerusalem (by the Roman Empire)
What is Tisha B'Av?
These are the meanings of the Jewish values "Chesed" and "Tikkun Olam."
What is translated as “loving-kindness,” [Chesed] is is a Jewish value that isn’t just an emotion—it’s a kind of action we take to help those who are physically or emotionally in need?
What is translated as "repairing the world," [tikkun olam] is a value that represents social justice in Judaism?
These are different Jewish ethnic groups of the diaspora, based on their geographic descents. In Hebrew, they are sometimes called "עדות" (communities).
What are Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews?
(NOTE: May also cite Ethiopian Jews.)
This is how one signs V'Ahavta in ASL
What is [Sign V'Ahavta in ASL] ...?
This term means "Time (of) Year" in Yiddish, and is used by Yiddish speaking Jews (or Jews of Ashkenazi descent) to refer to the anniversary of the day of death of a relative, (and sometimes other memorial anniversary dates).
What is Yahrtzeit, יאָרצײַט?