Talk:Milton Glaser

Jewish and nonobservant?

How can you be part of a religion and not belive in it? It's like saying about a random guy who's muslim: "He's a muslim but nonobservant", it doesn't make any sense. Unless I've missed something. Also, I think it's stupid to call Jews a group of people, it's a religion, I could choose to be jewish now, if I wanted too.

Any individual who was born Jewish but doesn't practice that faith, or whose mother or father is Jewish, can be considered Jewish and nonobservant. Furthermore, one cannot just choose to be Jewish, as it runs much deeper than that. Not only must that person believe in that faith, there are rituals, ceremonies, and lesson that one must undergo before they may be considered and accepted as a Jew.

I think Glaser slightly touches upon these questions in the excerpts from interviews at "designboom" and "hadassah" found below.

"maybe it is a characteristic of training, and of being jewish, being outside of the culture to some degree. people who are outside the culture tend to pay more attention to things outside the culture. and they do not necessarily adapt to the belief system of the culture."[1]

"Glaser frequently thinks of the meaning of his life, and his Jewish background plays a part in that. His parents were observant “up to a point,” he said. He had a bar mitzva but is not observant, though he fasts on Yom Kippur and hosts an annual Passover Seder."[2]

"However, the outsider sensibility of being Jewish, he said, of “never quite feeling at home in any culture,” gives him a kind of objectivity. “And part of my ideas come more from my Jewish background than my American background,” he said, citing a questioning attitude that he considers part of his makeup. Furthermore, the “idea of generosity toward others comes from my Jewish heritage.”"[3] Bus stop (talk) 13:37, 2 April 2012 (UTC)