Hello, everyone.
I have decided to give you some helpful information and tips, so anyone who’d like to represent Jewish people on his/her story. (even though someone that I know gave information about Jews on Episode forum, I wanted to explain it here, but a bit more in detail- some things weren’t explained - and I wanted to bring it on here)
Note: As some of you (might) know, English isn’t my native language, so I apologize if I have some spelling mistakes.
Beliefs:
So, we Jews believe in:
- G-d’s existence (monotheism).
- Reward and punishment (or in Hebrew “שכר ועונש”)
- Garden of Eden (or Paradise. Also, known as the World to Come - העולם הבא) & hell.
- Resurrection
- Messiah, who is believed to be the future redeemer of us
- Angels
(There’s more)
As you know, we also have the holy book, the Bible or “Tanakh” (תנ"ך), in Hebrew.
In Hebrew, Tanach is a short for:
Torah (known as the Five Book of Moses) ← תורה
Prophets ← (nevi’im) נביאים
Writings ← (Ketuvim, or ktuvim) כתובים
Give them a personality!
Not all the Jews are religious, in the context of many things: observance of Shabbat, keeping kashrut (even though most of the Jews do keep kashrut, which I’ll explain about it later), dressing modestly and more. Just because we live differently from others, it doesn’t mean that we are different from anyone else - we are human beings like anyone else. And not all the Jews are believers.
Besides, not all Jews live in Israel. There are many Jews around the world. So, give them a background!
Appearance:
We don’t have any specific appearance. We are not a race, so please diverse with the Jewish characters’ looks. Jews can be Sepharadis (or sfaradim/spharadim. It means “Spanish” in Hebrew), Ashkenazis, Ethiopians, Yemenites, etc.
About the Sfaradis and Ashkenazis:
Sepharadim - they are descendants of the expelled from Spain. Today, in Israel, most of the immigrant from the Islamic countries known as Mizrahim usually identified as Sephardim because of their Sephardi cultural-geographical background, many of whom are also descendants of Sephardic Jews who had dispersed in the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
However, not all the Sepharadis are considered as Mizrahim (such as the Italians, Greeks, Bulgarians), and not all the Mizrahim are considered as Sepharadim (such as the Yemenites, Persians, Syrians)
Ashkenazim - This is a comprehensive name for some Jewish communities sharing a common tradition, originating in the center (Germany, Poland, Austria, etc) and east (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova) of the European continent and part of the west. (Norway, France).
Now, here is the part that I would like to explain:
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Nose - for some reason, people think that all the Jews have a big/hooked nose, which is completely not true. We can have many shapes of noses, so not all of us have a big nose.
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Skin tone - there are many Jews with different skin tone, so there are dark-skinned (Yemenites, Iraqis, etc. But some of them can be fair-skinned, even a little) and black Jews (I can’t believe I said “black” as it refers to people. Sooo, example of black Jews - Ethiopians. But, there are Ethiopians who are fair-skinned, but there are still dark-skinned).
So, any skin tone is accepted.
- We also can have many different eye colors: you can find some green-eyed (mostly Sepharadi/Mizrahi. but there are also Ethiopians with green (even hazel) eyes ), blue-eyed (mostly Ashkenazim, but a Sepharadi can be blue-eyed), so not all the Jews are brown-eyed.
Holidays:
We celebrate holidays throughout the Hebrew calendar (according to this calendar, the year is 5779 {in Hebrew it’s ה’תשע"ט}).
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Every week - Shabbat (not really a holiday, but…). The word’s meaning is “Saturday” in Hebrew. So, this day is our day of rest and our seventh day (yeah, our weekend is on Saturday
). This day of rest starts on Friday evening (when the sun sets). So, on Saturdays we are prohibited from: doing melacha (it is usually translated as “work”), using technology (for instance, those who keep Shabbat turn off their phones, they are offline, can’t drive, etc.), writing, cooking&baking and more.
How can we eat something if we cannot cook and bake? We cook foods on Friday and turn on a metal sheet before the entrance of Shabbat. If the food is cooked on Saturday or Friday evening (after the Shabbat has entered), it won’t be considered as kosher (which will be explained later).
The Months of Elul-Tishrei:
Rosh Ha’Shannah - The Jewish new year. It’s a holiday observed with festive meals (we eat an apple with honey 
pomegranate and fish head). It’s connected to the Ten Days of Repentance, which is ending with Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah (will be explained).
This month there is a custom of blowing the shofar.
Reason(s) for celebrating: A call to the people to do Teshuvah for Yom Kippur, Yom Din (Day of Judgment) and one of the Rosh Hashana on the Hebrew calendar.
Yom Kippur (Yom = day, Kippur = (of) atonement) - It’s the most solemn and important day of the Jewish year. A day devoted to self–examination, and the chance to begin the New Year with a clean slate. It is including fasting (it’s the most important fasting day. We fast for 25 hours.), intensive prayer, confessing our sins, asking forgiveness from the other and forgiving. 10 days before Yom Kippur, we have the Aseret Yeme Teshuva (Ten Days of Repentance) - these days are seen as an opportunity for change (after all, these days are meant to clean ourselves from our sins and it’s a great chance to ask for forgiveness and forgive).
Men and women under the age of bar mitzva (13 = for the men) or bat mitzva (12 = for the women) don’t have to fast on that day, but if - the men at least at the age of 13 and the women are 12, they must fast.
In Israel, all the people greet each other by saying “G’mar Chatima Tova” or “Chatima Tova” (a good signature), and when we greet someone to receive a good signature, we wish him that his name will be signed on Yom Kippur in the Book of Life and that his life will be good (Tbh, I don’t know what about the US Jews 
).
Sukkot or Succot (Tabernacles or booth- we celebrate the fall harvest. This holiday also commemorates the time when the Hebrews dwelt in the Sinai wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. We celebrate this holiday for 7 days (and we build a succah).
This holiday is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (in Hebrew: Shalosh Ha’Regalim).
Together with it, we have Shemini Atzeret (lit. trans: 8th day of assembly), which marks the end of Sukkot with an annual prayer for rain (I will explain about prayers).
Simchat Torah - There isn’t much to explain about it. It is a day marking the end and the beginning of the annual Torah reading cycle. We read the Book of Ecclesiastes in the synagogue, but in abroad, they read it on Shemini Atzeret.
The Month of Kislev:
Hannukah (Festival of lights) - it is a festival celebrating liberation from oppression, freedom of worship, and finding light in the darkest of times. On this holiday, we eat foods prepared in oil, mainly: sufganiyah(ot) (jelly doughnut{s}) and potato pancakes (or levivot) commemorating the miracle of the oil.
We play the game of dreidel (called sevivon in Hebrew), symbolizing Jews’ disguising of illegal Torah study sessions as gambling meetings during the period leading to the Maccabees’ revolt - sometimes the Hebrew letters נ ג ה פ are written on a dreidel. These letters are short of " a big miracle was here" in Hebrew:
נס = a miracle
גדול = big
היה = was
פה = here
However, in abroad, Jews say "a big miracle was there" (= in Israel).
The Month of Shevat:
Tu Bi’Shvat - It is celebrated only in Israel. It is “New Year of the Trees" (in Hebrew: Rosh Hashana La’Ilanot) celebrated with observances that connect us to our environment and the natural world.
It is celebrated on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (“tu” {ט"ו} Gematrian translation is 15).
We traditionally eat nuts and dried fruits.
The Month of Adar:
Purim - A day celebrating (and thanking god for) the saving of the Jews from a diabolical plot of destruction, as recounted in the Book of Esther. We read the Book of Esther in the synagogue.
Purim is celebrated among us by:
- Exchanging gifts of foods (sometimes drinks) known as mishloach manot. We usually give sweet things - it is very common (at least in Israel).
- Donating charity to the poor, known as matanot la’evyonim (= gifts for the poor).
- Public recitation (“reading of the megillah”) of the Book (=scroll) of Esther, known as kriat ha-megillah, including listening to it.
- Reciting additions to the daily prayers and the grace after meals, known as Al HaNissim
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The golden thing
: Wearing costumes and masks is one of the characteristics of this holiday (you could say that Purim is a bit similar to Halloween at some point, except we don’t wear scary costumes :sweat_smile, even though it is also an option for a costume. 
(one day before the fast of Esther). Another characteristic - this holiday is a joyous one, as it is said: “Mi’She’Nichnas Adar - Marbin Be’Simcha” (When Adar begins - we increase our Joy)
The Month of Nisan:
Passover - This is a spring festival celebrated as a commemoration of their liberation by God from slavery in ancient Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses (in Hebrew, he is called Moshe). In Passover evening, we do the Passover Seder (known also as “Leil Ha’Seder”), which marks the beginning of Passover and we read the Haggadah Shel Pesach and Song of Songs (or Canticles. Usually read in the synagogue). Symbols of this festival: eating matza, Passover Seder, bedikat chametz (the search for chametz before Passover). Also, the firstborn child must fast on the day of Passover night (from the morning until Passover evening itself).
Chametz is the flour of one of five kinds of grain (wheat, barley, spelled, oatmeal and rye) that comes in contact with water, and as a result, it has swelled. Most of the pastries, such as bread, cakes, and biscuits, are chametz, as well as five-grain beverages, such as beer, and starch derived from five different kinds of grain (except corn starch). Even something that was made before Passover and it is not a pastry is considered as chametz So, we have a special kashrut for Passover.
We also have Pesach Sheni (Second Passover).
Between the Months of Nisan-Sivan:
Sefirah (or Sefirat Ha’Omer. The word sefirah means “counting” {Counting of the Omer}) - is the 49-day period between the Biblical pilgrimage festivals of Passover and Shavuot. The Torah states that the period should be counted in both days and weeks. The day following the 49th day of the period is the festival of Shavuot. Traditionally, the reason cited is that this is in memory of a plague that killed the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva. The period of counting the Omer is also a time of semi-mourning, during which the Halakha (Jewish Law) forbids haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, or conducting weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing (the prohibition of shaving and haircuts is only for men).
On the 33rd day of in the Omer count (called in Hebrew Lag (ל"ג = 33) Ba’Omer). This day represents the end of the plague is explained as the day of Bar Kokhba’s victory. On this day, many people make bonfires.
The Month of Sivan:
Shavuot (lit. trans: weeks) or the Feast of Weeks - The celebration of the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people, also known as the Festival of First Fruits. It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. The evening of Shavuot begins on 5 Sivan and Shavuot is on 6 Sivan (and outside Israel: 7).
On this holiday, we eat dairy foods. This holiday also is known as “Festival of Water”, since we pour/ spray water on each other . It is a custom that the North Africa Jews used to do, and today it became common in Israel.
The Month of Av:
Tu Be’Av (in Hebrew: ט"ו באב) - a minor holiday. In Israel, it is celebrated as a holiday of love (by the way, some people in Israel celebrate Valentine’s Day).
Festivals celebrated in Israel:
- Holocaust Memorial Day
- Israeli Memorial Day
- Israeli Independence Day
- Jerusalem Day
- Yom Ha’Aliyah
Festivals celebrated by specific communities:
Mimuna - It is is a traditional North African Jewish celebration dinner (but today celebrated by the Moroccans), that currently takes place in Israel. It is held the day after Passover, marking the return to eating hametz (leavened bread, etc.), which is forbidden throughout the week of Passover.
Sigd (Prostration)- celebrated by the Ethiopian community. Today it’s celebrated in order to thank god for our being in Israel (the Jew’s country). During the celebration, members of the community fast, recite Psalms and gather in Jerusalem where Kessim read from the Orit. The ritual is followed by the breaking of the fast, dancing, and general revelry. It’s celebrated 50 days after Yom Kippur.
Fasts:
We have 6 fasts a year, but 4 of them are minor fasts:
- The Fast of Gedaliah (on the day after Rosh Ha’Shana)
- The Fast of the 10th of Tevet
In Hebrew, fast is called “ta’tanit” or “tzom”. - The Fast of the 17th of Tammuz
- The Fast of Esther (which takes place immediatly before Purim)
The 2 others are the major fasts: Tisha Be’Av (9th of Av) and Yom Kippur.
There are other minor customary fast days, but these are not universally observed:
- Yom Kippur Katan," (literally “Little Yom Kippur”) the day before every Rosh Chodesh (will explain), if that day is on Saturday, it is moved to Thursday.
- The Fast of the Firstborn, on the day before Passover, which applies only to first-born sons.
If you want to know more about the Jewish calendar and the months, here are the links:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2263459/jewish/Jewish-Months.htm
Marriage:
I would rather not go off into it and give an article that explains it better:
I will tell you that we aren’t allowed to marry non-Jewish people. This is a Torah prohibition. We learn this prohibition from a few sources on the Bible, but I’ll give you 2:
- Exodus 34:12-16 :
12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15 “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
- Deuteronomy 7:3-4 :
3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
There’s a law that says - if the mother is Jewish, so are her children (no matter what’s the father’s religion. Even though, she is prohibited marrying a non-Jew); However, if the mother isn’t Jewish, her children won’t be (so, especially men are prohibited marrying a non-Jewish woman).
Another thing:
Before breaking the glass, the groom says the verse(s): "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget
May my tongue cling to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy." (Psalms {Tehillim, in Hebrew} 137:5-6).
In Hebrew:
“אם לא אשכחך ירושלים, תשכח ימיני: תדבק לשוני | לחכי אם לא אזכרכי, אם לא אעלה את ירושלים, על ראש שמחתי”
(Im eshcacheh yerushalayeem, tishcakh yemini: tidbak leshoni | le’khiki im lo ezkerekhi, im lo a’ale et yerushalayeem al rosh simchati".
Note: when the Haredi Jews are engaged, they don’t see each other 'till the wedding night.
Foods:
We have Kashrut: Jewish religious laws that tell us what we are allowed to eat and what we aren’t. Now, I won’t go into details much about it, but I’ll tell you what we can’t eat - pork (of course), shellfish, blood, seafood and more. We also have the shechita (or sh-chita) laws, which tell us how to slaughter 
certain mammals and birds, so we will be able to eat. This law is of the Torah.
In Deuteronomy 14:3-12, it is written what we can’t eat (but there are many foods that we can’t eat):
(3) Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. (4) These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, (5) the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. (6) And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof wholly cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye may eat.(7) Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger, because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean unto you; (8) and the swine, because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you; of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch. (9) These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales may ye eat; (10) and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you. (11) Of all clean birds ye may eat. (12) But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the great vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray; (13) and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kinds; (14) and every raven after its kinds; (15) and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds; (16) the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl; (17) and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant; (18) and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat. (19) And all winged swarming things are unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten. (20) Of all clean winged things ye may eat. (21) Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; thou mayest give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.
The mentioned things on this source AREN’T the only things we Jews cannot eat.
Even though most of the Jews keep kashrut (at least in Israel), there are secular Jews who don’t keep (but in Israel there are secular who do keep kashrut, but they don’t keep Shabbat), and the Reforms who canceled the observance of kashrut when the Reform movement was established.
Food made by a non-Jew isn’t allowed to be eaten, and anything that comes out of prohibited animals (for example we aren’t allowed to eat pork, so we can’t drink the pig’s milk).
Also, we are forbidden eating milk and meat together. What should a Jew do in that case? If he ate a dairy food and wants to eat meaty, he shall wait for at least half an hour from the moment he finished eating the dairy food; and if he ate something meaty and wants to eat something dairy, he shall wait for 6-6.5 hours.
Note:
When going to public food places, we CANNOT eat there unless there’s a Kashrut certificate confirming that there’s supervision on the place’s kashrut.
Prayers:
I won’t go into details much about the subjects of prayers, but I’ll tell you that we have three daily prayers:
- The morning prayer, or Shacharit, from the Hebrew word shachar (“morning light”).
- The afternoon prayer or “Mincha”, named for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem (fact: as you know, Jerusalem is a holy city for us, the Jews. In our Bible, Jerusalem is mentioned 600 times)
- The evening (or additional) prayer or “Arvit” (like, “of the evening”, “nightfall”)
The men pray all these 3 prayers a day, but women have to pray at least one prayer a day.
Special prayers:
-
Musaf (= additional) - mainly recited by Orthodox and Conservative congregations on Shabbat (there is an additional prayer for Saturday, and at all, prayers for Saturday)
-
Ne’ila (= closing)- a fifth prayer, is recited only on Yom Kippur.
There are also prayers that are recited only on certain holidays.
We pray facing Jerusalem. However, Jews outside Israel pray facing Israel
Here are links for more information about prayers:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/136670/jewish/Jewish-Prayers.htm
(I don’t really trust much on wikipedia, but it can help you)
Prayers before eating and drinking:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/278538/jewish/Food-Blessings-Brachot.htm
And we also have a prayer after meals.
There are different denominations of Judaism
There are 4 known denominations of Judaism: Orthodox, Neo-Orthodox, Reforms, and Conservatives.
Here is a link that explains about these denominations:
But you can make your Jewish character say “I’m Jewish” without them being identified with a particular denomination (e.g: the majority of the Israelis aren’t identified with any denomination, but define themselves as “just Jewish”)
In my case, since I was born into a Jewish family who belongs to the Bet Israel (or Beta Yisrael, as the Israelis say), The religion of the community, which in the language of speech among us, as Amharic speakers are commonly referred to as the Israelite faith, that is Israel Haymanot, it means "Israel’s belief (Haymanot means also “religion”) as opposed to Cristian Haymanot as the Christian faith, and is an absolute monotheistic religion, in one God, the God of Israel.
Languages:
Even though Hebrew is a Semitic language, it doesn’t mean that it is spoken among all the Jews.
We have:
Ladino - an old Spanish that the Sepharadim used to speak. Today, it is less spoken.
Yiddish- spoken by the Ashkenazim, especially by the orthodox (= haredim). Mixed German (mainly old German words), Hebrew and Aramic.
Amharic - The immigrants still use it, but the new generation isn’t use it much - some of them knows some Amharic and some of them don’t use the language at all, but Hebrew.
And, of course Hebrew - Used in Israel. From what I read about the Jews abroad, there are some Jewish schools who teach Hebrew. Also, some Jews outside Israel use Hebrew for: praying and learning the Bible - so to be exact, they use more Biblical Hebrew than the spoken Hebrew in Israel.
Anyway, Jews can speak other languages as their native languages - depends on where they live/come from.
Clothing
The religious woman who are married cover their heads. This is an obligation of the Torah, as it is said:
And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: (Numbers 5:18)
Plus, the skirt should be knee-length or longer; the arms should be covered to the elbow or below (and the neckline should be modest), and the midriff should be covered as well.
The religious men wear a kippah on their heads and they wear tzitzit under their shirts.
If you want to create a religious female character, please dress her properly. Same about the male character.
But, as you could guess, not all men and women do so.
Note: we have 613 commandments, but they are many ones that women are exempt from.
More information:
We go to schools and work on Sundays as it’s our first day of the week. Our rest day is Saturday (mentioned above), and for some - Friday.
By the way, a man and a woman who aren’t married to each other ARE NOT allowed to touch each other. Even if they’re a couple, they cannot touch each other unless they’re married.
About Israelis:
Not gonna lie to you - most of the Israelis can be rude or sound rude. That’s a fact. They don’t know how to stand in lines and some of them have that unapologetic (even sassy, if you want ) attitude, but can’t help it 
. But deep inside, they are good people, so if something happens to you in the street, many people will leave everything they do just to help you stand up and make sure that you are okay, even though they don’t know you - one of the reasons why I like the people in Israel. We care about each other, you can’t even imagine how much. 
.Since Israelis can be very open people, they have no shame to flirt with you , open a conversation with you and many of us hate lies and hypocrisy - we’d rather be honest and tell you the truth than play with your feelings. 
Israelis are very warm, welcoming, caring and open people.
Jewish LGBTQ+ people:
Well, as I said above, we Jews are human beings. So, there are Jews who are LGBTQ+ members, even some of them are religious. In Israel, there are organizations for the religious LGBTQ+ people:
Havruta and Bat Kol (they are the only organizations that I heard about, so I don’t know whether there are more except these organizations or not).
So, if you want to create Jewish LGBTQ+ people, you can make some of them religious.
Hope it helped you
Useful Greetings and Sayings in Hebrew - Part 1
Useful Greetings and Sayings in Hebrew - Part 2
List of Permitted & Prohibited Foods
Super important notes!
a. Please no, and I mean, no politics!
b. If you want to ask me - feel free to do so, but be respectful.
c. Please try to stay on topic.
d. If I have forgotten something, please let me know.
Some stereotypes about Jews:
If you want to represent other religions, please support those help threads:
.Yeah, some Jews do have a big nose, but it doesn’t mean that all the Jews have it. This is a particularly strong stereotype. (Well, it could be considered as an Anti-Semitic stereotypes, if you ask me. But, hey, you can create a Jewish character with a big nose as long as it’s not based on that stereotypes. Anyway, all nose shapes are accepted)
; all the Haredi women work either as teachers or as kindergarten teacher.
). We Jews come in no specific shape, color or size.
! Hem nir’iim nehedar alaych (Just joking! It looks great on you).
”.