{"quotes":[{"text":"If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example.","author":"Anne Frank","tags":["holocaust","inspirational","judaism"],"id":5044,"author_id":"Anne+Frank"},{"text":"She was alone and destitute in a world of pointless carnage. By an eight-hundred-year-old Sepahrdic tradition she ad been since the age of twelve and a half 'bogeret l'reshut nafsha'--an adult wit authority over her own soul. The Torah taught, Choose life. And so, rather than die of pride, Sofia Mendes sold what she had to sell, and she survived.","author":"Mary Doria Russell","tags":["inspirational","judaism","life","strength","survival-instinct"],"id":9082,"author_id":"Mary+Doria+Russell"},{"text":"Faith is intrinsic to humanity and the freedom to practice one's religion is a right no power can deny.","author":"Aysha Taryam","tags":["aysha-taryam","buddhism","christianity","faith","hinduism","human-rights","islam","judaism","religion-spirituality","theology"],"id":18172,"author_id":"Aysha+Taryam"},{"text":"If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820].","author":"Thomas Jefferson","tags":["cruel","fake","freethinker","freethought","god-of-abraham","imposter","jehovah","judaism","lies","new-testament","reason","skeptic","skepticism","yahweh"],"id":26060,"author_id":"Thomas+Jefferson"},{"text":"I have found my way, step by step, proceeding from touch points that have emerged, some through conscious choice and some through dream state discovery.","author":"Leonard Nimoy","tags":["art","artist-s-statement","discovery","dreams","judaism","kabalah","photography","shin","spirituality"],"id":36655,"author_id":"Leonard+Nimoy"},{"text":"Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.","author":"Mahatma Gandhi","tags":["buddhism","christian","christianity","hindu","hinduism","islam","jew","judaism","muslim","religion"],"id":38470,"author_id":"Mahatma+Gandhi"},{"text":"Someone once said to me, 'There are so many religions in the world. They can't all be right.' And my reply was, 'Well, they can't all be wrong either.' All religions in the world today share more commonalities than differences, yet language blinds many from seeing these truths. Some people will tell me that what I write about is straight from their holy book, but the truth is that the main principles found in all holy books were already engraved in all our hearts. If you think common sense, the golden rule and knowing right from wrong are exclusive only to your faith, then you need to open yourself up to the rest of the world's religions.","author":"Suzy Kassem","tags":["belief","books","catholicism","christianity","common-sense","conscience","dualism","ethical","ethics","faith","god","god","golden-rule","higher-power","hinduism","honor","islam","judaism","literature","love","moral-philosophy","morality","philosophy","politics","principles","religion","religions","relkigion","right","right-and-wrong","suzy-kassem","truth","universe","world-religions","wrong"],"id":50935,"author_id":"Suzy+Kassem"},{"text":"In the Catskills, nostalgia runs backwards. The upwardly mobile Jewish masses of the 1950s and 1960s have been replaced by the Jews of 19th century Poland.","author":"Kevin Haworth","tags":["catskills","culture","funny","insightful","jewish","judaism","new","nostalgia","york"],"id":52229,"author_id":"Kevin+Haworth"},{"text":"Civil order mattered.\tZoe didn’t know why Farah continued to wear the headscarf, but most Middle-Eastern women wore modest clothing to anchor themselves to a moral order, in an upside-down world.\tZoe wore the chador as a protective shell, to erase herself, to avoid thinking, to envelop herself in the complete custody of her adopted Muslim sisters. In their care she would come out healed, able to process the bigotry that caused the murder of her Jewish parents. Then, when she was whole again, she would reclaim her place in the world.\tThough others couldn’t see it, behind the nameless, shapeless, Middle-Eastern garb, she was healing. The chador cocooned and nurtured her. Dour exteriors meant blossoming interiors . . . To Zoe. Judaism centered her, but Islam shielded her. Both served their purpose . . . For now.","author":"Michael Benzehabe","tags":["benzehabe","chador","cyber-war","exterior","interior","islam","judaism","middle-east","mossad","spy","unassimilated"],"id":55372,"author_id":"Michael+Benzehabe"},{"text":"To me God’s voice and inspiration is stronger, of greater importance and authority than that of any fairy or any other spirit like creature from above or below earth. My Spirit Tales are stories based on truth and inspired by His writings.Stories about YHWH and His great wonderful acts are definitely not fairytales but Spirit Tales.","author":"Sipporah Joseph","tags":["bible","hebrew","jewish","jewish-story-telling","judaism","messianic-judaism","spirit-tales","torah"],"id":58750,"author_id":"Sipporah+Joseph"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":94,"pages":10,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}