Jonathan Safran Foer Quotes

Lesson Number One: The Importance of Being Jewish

I was a Jewish rabbinical student for 12 years, and studied the Bible all the time.

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 think part of being Jewish is that innate desire to question things. Rabbis sit around all day and question the Torah. Giving yourself the room to question things, in a religion, just breeds thinking.

[ My mother] went, OK, I've read the Bible. I've read the Bible again. I'm reading the Bible again. OK, let me - where does this Bible come from? What does this Old Testament speak - who are the Israelites? Who - what is Judaism? And then she went, and I'm going to study that. And, you know, she wanted to almost get to the core.

Jewishness cropped up and has never successfully been put down since.

I was in school at the time, but at this time I'm in college. I'm holding up this bible and I say, God, who are you?And so I do nothing for the next two years of my life, virtually, but stay in the word of God and find out what is the answers to life.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere.

I study Torah all the time.

I'm a fifth generation Jew from the South, and I would say that I felt this connection to my religion, but it wasn't a spiritual connection.

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

To be a Jew is a destiny.

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

I'm a Jew. I'm fascinated by our culture and our history, by what made us the people we are. It influences every breath I take. It informs and guides me. Without it, I'd just be a vacuum.

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

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

I had a bat mitzvah, was confirmed, went to Jewish summer camp, I go to temple for the High Holy Days. I think, like most people in their early 20s, I kind of strayed away from it. I think once I have a family I'll be back into it.

I grew up in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis. Our idea of Judaism was no bar mitzvahs and a Christmas tree that had a skirt at the bottom embroidered with the names of my grandparents.

[Jews have] a particular need, evidently greater than that of any others, to pay more careful attention to education.

Judaism is interesting in that there is something there that I think you just can't understand if you're not a Jew - it moves into a realm of true mystery.

It's tough being a Jew.

There's something innately funny and warm about being Jewish. I think it's something to be embraced and respected.

I have a very strong sense of who I am as a Jew and a strong sense of belonging.

I grew up happily immersed in Jewish culture and community.