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Hey, guys let me introduce myself. Living in the U.S., 16 y.o. Ok, so I am Jewish but my parents aren't really religious at all, as a matter of fact It's my grandfather who is the only real religious one. This is on my mom's side, but a few years ago his temple burned down. Just about 20 yrs back.
Anyways TL, that temple is reopening bigger and better. My grandfather and I have always been very close and I really want to convery to Judaism. I know the history of the religion fairly well I like to believe and some basic prayers. I was invited to come on the opening day, but I'm rather embarassed I can not read Hebrew. Do any of you fellow TL'ers know of any guides to Hebrew.
Such as TV series, books, anything I could get my hands on? Sorry for the bad blog kinda in a rush but TY all in advance.
EDIT:just to give you a basic knowledge I do know the aleph-bet and the vowels and basics such as mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, yes, no etc. etc.
 
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United States24805 Posts
You don't need to know hebrew to participate in temple. You can just memorize everything. I've been to a few barmitzvahs and most of the prayers said by participants were written for them in phonetic english or whatever lol
edit: by that I mean 'bah rook a tah' etc
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do you want to convert for yourself or for the acceptance from your grandpa?
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Learning the Hebrew aleph bet isn't too hard. It's reading without vowels that takes longer, but you won't need to know how to do that in temple. I would recommend going to your nearest library and taking out any "learn Hebrew" book, and complementing it with videos and websites so that you get the pronunciation right.
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Many temples have a hebrew school, either to teach kids or adults who converted later. My advice would be to talk to the rabbi about your best options - he (or she) will be happy to help you out.
But don't be embarrassed that you can't read hebrew. 90% of the people at my temple can't either - and I can only read phoenetically (I lost my vocabulary after not using it for 5 years).
Quick question though - what denomination are you? Reform, Orthodox, etc?
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memorizing the prayers is easy enough, attend shabbat services consistantly and you'll pick them up no problem.
Learning to read Hebrew is actually fairly easy as long as you have the vowels (the Torah itself lacks them). The harder part is understanding it. For that you either want to start attending the Temple's Hebrew classes, look online for guides/programs, or look for a private instructor.
like others have said though, don't be embarrassed. The fact that your interested in taking the effort to learn would probably impress everyone. The majority of American Jew don't speak hebrew and only memorize the prayers, going to extra-mile is always a thing to be proud of.
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My grandpa is a jew, which makes me 1/4th ashkenazi jew. My grandpa was really jewish though, he owned a jew newspaper in isreal when he lived there maybe like 10 years ago, but sold it off when he came to canada (it wasn't anything big, but he was a journalist/writer). I used to speak Hebrew fluently but I forgot it all. Only thing I remember is
shalom biznach
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I'm from israel and speak it fluently and from m experience from going to temples outside of Israel you'll usuall have people reading the Hebrew but they don't understand it, there will be an English version on the same page as the prayer usually.
This post is really rushed as i'm on my iPod.
If there's anything really specific u need just ask me
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On November 27 2010 16:55 Lucid90 wrote:
My grandpa is a jew, which makes me 1/4th ashkenazi jew. My grandpa was really jewish though, he owned a jew newspaper in isreal when he lived there maybe like 10 years ago, but sold it off when he came to canada (it wasn't anything big, but he was a journalist/writer). I used to speak Hebrew fluently but I forgot it all. Only thing I remember is
shalom biznach
From your mothers side or fathers? AFAIK if its from fathers you're not jewish at all.
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heres a guide for people who dont know hebrew.
don't ever look at a shirt with hebrew writing on it and ask, "is that jewish"
=O
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EPT
and it is an awesome place to be. Being 16 years old doesn't make it easy, but definately worth looking into any Ulpan programs if you want to get serious 
