Jewish Culture

Jewish culture is among the most unique cultures in the world. Judaism is the only monoethnic religion (when belonging to the nation means belonging to the religion as well), creating an authentic culture with rich and complicated history. Jewish communities can be found all over the world, and this fact explains the diversity of the Jewish culture. Hebrew is spoken by over 10 million of people worldwide, either as their first or second language.

Jewish cultural traditions can be found in the Hebrew literature, Jewish theatre and Jewish humor. The latter dates centuries back to the Torah (The Holy Scripture of the Jews). The Jewish humor generally refers to the collection of verbal, frequently self-deprecating anecdotal humor, mostly originating in the Eastern Europe. This tradition had been brought to Israel and the United States. Combined with deep-rooted traditions of the Jewish theatre and film, there is no wonder why so many American actors and stand-up comedians are Jewish.

As a result of this geographic and cultural mix, Jewish cuisine combines the food of many cultures where Jews have settled, including Mediterranean, Spanish, German and Eastern European styles of cooking. All these dishes, however, need to be kosher. Common Jewish foods include stuffed fish, bagels, hummus, stuffed cabbage, tzimmis, matzah bread, and many more.

Covering the Jewish culture in one article, or even in a collection of publications, is literally impossible. To understand the Jewish culture, one needs to take a deeper look into its history, and learning Hebrew will help you better understand the people and the culture. Here, we help you learn Hebrew free.