A Jew in Germany – Oliver Bradley

Living Our Beliefs: Exploring Faith & Religion in Daily Life

Episode 30.
Coming from a multi-cultural and inter-religious home, finding his way into Jewish expression has been a process. This flowered after moving to Germany, soon after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and coinciding with a great hunger for German Jewish history there. Oliver has since found a home in traditional services. His individual prayer experience is the important element and the path towards being a better person.
Highlights:
· There are many ways of being Jewish. Each person needs to find their own way.

· For Oliver, services provide either beauty with singing together or a personal connection to God, where the focus is individual. He prefers the latter.

· He likes traditional liturgy but doesn’t feel the rigid separation of genders in Orthodox synagogues is necessary, or that women always need to be in the back.

Quotes:
“My real, let's say, coming out as a Jew was in Germany, and I think it had a lot to do with being in a country where my Jewish heritage has many generations of history.”

“I would say for me I'm Jewish by birth, I'm Jewish by choice, and I would say I'm also Jewish by my love of Jewish traditions and my love to live Jewish traditions.”

“If we're talking about our conversations with God, I'm finding that my best conversations with God are in those spaces where nobody really cares how you're speaking to God.”

“I do not know of any female rabbi in the Orthodox sphere who's going to conduct a service where men are present, but there are women who are conducting orthodox services for women.”

References:
Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys
Tefillot (Hebrew) – prayers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_prayer
Kashrut – the Jewish dietary laws. https://www.britannica.com/topic/kashruth
Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment (ca. 1770s-1880s) – https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-haskalah
Yiddishe shul – a Yiddish (German-Hebrew) synagogue.

Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851013/episodes/12017859-30-oliver-bradley-a-jew-in-germany/edit
Social Media links for Oliver:
Twitter – #oqbradley
Twitter – #oliverbradley
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/PeriodicPeriodical.OQB
European Jewish Association (EJA) – https://ejassociation.eu
Twitter – #ejassociation

Social Media links for Méli:
Talking with God Project – https://www.talkingwithgodproject.org
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisolomon/
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The Living Our Beliefs podcast offers a place to learn about other religions and faith practices. When you hear about how observant Christians, Jews and Muslims live their faith, new ideas and questions arise: Is your way similar or different? Is there an idea or practice that you want to explore? Understanding how other people live opens your mind and heart to new people you meet.
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The Living Our Beliefs podcast is part of the Talking with God Project – https://www.talkingwithgodproject.org/