Lenny Abrahamson Quotes

I was raised Jewish and bar mitzvahed.

You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew.

I came into the world a Jew, and although I did not live my life entirely as a Jew, I think it is fitting that I should leave as a Jew. I don't want to turn my back on a great and noble heritage.

I went to Hebrew school but opted out of a bar mitzvah.

Judaism is not just a religion but a people, and the food and customs of one part of the people is connected to the other part of the people. They are part of a larger story.

I love being Jewish, but I think that our generation is the first generation that crossed that line between being a cultural versus a practicing Jew.

I am a Jew. Those are four words of pride. My Jewishness is as deep as my genes.

We are committed to raising our children as Jews. I knew that it had to start with me at a greater level, at a deeper level, if it was going to be a meaningful example to them.

I just went to Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah. No crazy weird Jewish cult.

I was bar mitzvahed, which was hard. I feel it was the hardest thing I ever had to do; harder than making a movie. It was a lot of studying, you know. I wasn't a perfect Hebrew reader, and also, they say when you're reading your Torah portion, you're not supposed to memorize it. It turned out very tricky.

Judaism for me is a sensibility of collective self-questioning and uncomfortable truth-telling. I feel a debt of responsibility to this past. It is why I am Jewish.

I do strongly identify with being Jewish. I was raised Orthodox and had a childhood complicated by the fact that my father was deeply religious and my mother was not.

My purpose is to have American Jews look away from the success story with which they've cheered themselves up, and to have them remember the classical tradition, whatever it is.

I consider myself a Jewish writer - even if my characters frequently are not Jewish - in the same way, I guess, that I consider myself a Jewish man, even though I don't often attend shul.

I grew up in a secular suburban Jewish household where we only observed the religion on very specific times like a funeral or a Bar Mitzvah.

I wasn't bat mitzvahed.

I believe in Judaism, I was raised a Jew, I'm happy to be one - or proud to be one.

I had a Hebraic wedding in New York, so I'm definitely Jewish.

If you are a Rothschild, a Rosenwald, a Gimbel, or even a Waldbaum, growing up Jewish can be a rich experience. For the rest of us, it could be just so-so.

I've had a bris, was Bar Mitzvahed and, on occasion, have referred to a temple as a shul. I've never denied it, nor have I disguised it. I am, indeed, a Jew.

I never paid much attention to being Jewish when I was a kid. In fact, I'd say my religion was more surfing than Judaism - that's what I spent most of my time doing.

I think that being Jewish is in some ways unique because there's this conflation of race, culture and religion.

When my children were born, I made the choice I wanted them to be raised as Jews and to have a Jewish education.

Though I am not religious in the least, I am very proud to be Jewish.

The good Jew is ritually observant and resists assimilation, in some sense living apart, never fitting comfortably into American or any other society.