Posted on 07/28/2008 6:34:51 AM PDT by WilliamReading
BOCA RATON — Mo Brenner is taking Jewish pride to a new and controversial level.
The 27-year-old Boca Raton tattoo artist boasts a large Star of David on his upper right arm engraved with Abram, his Hebrew name.
He'll gladly sketch Hebrew writing and Jewish stars on his clients at Boca Body Art, because what could possibly be a better way to celebrate religion than with a shrine that will last a lifetime?
"A tattoo should really mean something to you," Brenner said. "Mine represents my religion and family."
With the tattoo phenomenon continuing to explode - 40 percent of people between the ages of 26 to 40 have at least one tattoo, according to the Pew Research Center - some Jews don't want to be left out.
But it's a contradiction for a religion that most believe forbids tattoos. Perhaps even more stinging, millions of Jews were forcibly tattooed during the Holocaust.
"I was always taught that nice Jewish people didn't do that," said 40-year-old Boca resident Amy Lubetkin. "When I think of tattoos, I think of the Holocaust and how tattooing of all these Jewish people was another way to take away their identity, take away from who they were."
Bruce Ratoff, a 55-year-old Boca resident, considers himself an only moderately observant Jew, yet there are certain lines he refuses to cross.
"Tattoos are a permanent mutilation and thus a direct violation of Jewish law," Ratoff said. "The Nazis were aware of this - it was a deliberate desecration when they tattooed concentration camp inmates. Why then should we deliberately choose to desecrate ourselves? I find this trend most disturbing."
Strangely enough, this is one of the reasons that younger Jews, like 18-year-old Alexis Engelhardt of West Palm Beach, are heading to tattoo parlors.
Engelhardt's grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, so he considered having "remember" tattooed on his forearm in Hebrew.
Ultimately he decided against it because he didn't want such a visible tattoo to hurt his chances at future employment. Instead, he modified a common tattoo of surfers - nautical stars at the front of the hips - using two Jewish stars.
"My parents were kind of upset when they found out, and so was my grandma, but it isn't that big of a deal," Engelhardt said. "I think you should take religion as more of a guideline instead of just rules saying this is how you should live. I think banning tattoos is a little bit ancient, and we're kind of past that."
Tattoo artist Brenner, the great-grandson of Jews caught up in the Holocaust, is thinking about adding yellow coloring to the Star of David on his arm.
Jewish people were forced to wear yellow stars and badges in Nazi Germany.
"I want to represent what they went through," Brenner said.
It's an argument that puzzles orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Uminer of the Chabad Jewish Center of Martin and St. Lucie Counties.
"That memory is not a good memory," Uminer said. "The memory of the Holocaust, that terrible act of barbarism that happened while the whole world watched and was quiet, is not something of remembrance. We shouldn't forget, but if you want to be clear that you're Jewish, wear a yarmulke (the traditional Jewish skullcap) on your head.
"How can you care about your religion when you disobey it (by getting a tattoo)? It just doesn't work."
Anthony Fratello, the Reform rabbi of Temple Shaarei Shalom in Boynton Beach, said he has very mixed emotions about tattoos on Jewish people.
He believes that the biblical text barring tattoos is "a bit vague" and that the real stigma these days stems from the Holocaust.
He's heard of people tattooing exact replicas of the numbers that were tattooed on the forearms of their relatives in concentration camps.
"There are those who see it as a way to reconnect with people that perished in the Holocaust, and I can see both sides of the argument," Fratello said.
However, he believes there is something sacred about keeping the body unmarked.
"I think there's a great deal that we can learn from the traditional perspective to say that it's your body, and God gave it you to take care of," Fratello said.
Many Jews have been reluctant to get tattoos because of a long-standing belief that the deceased can't be buried in Jewish cemeteries if they are tattooed.
However, even Orthodox rabbis like Uminer say that's a myth.
The Star of David of the Palm Beaches cemetery in West Palm Beach has no policy regarding tattoos, and Mount Sinai Memorial Park - an Orthodox cemetery in Miami - doesn't have its employees view the body before it is buried.
Once Ann Pardes of Boca Raton learned that prohibiting tattooed Jews from being buried was "just an old wives' tale," she permitted her son to get a tattoo in remembrance of his grandmother.
"I couldn't say no," Pardes said. "I thought it was for a very good reason, and it's a beautiful tattoo in memory of my mom. I'm even considering getting one myself."
Still, don't expect all Jewish people to go against a tattoo-forbidding mantra passed on for thousands of years.
"Every place I look, every movie star, every rock star, every athlete has tattoos, so I'm not surprised at this trend," Lubetkin said. "But I'm still going to instill in my children that Jewish people don't get tattoos. When my son was as young as 4 and he'd see somebody with a tattoo, he'd say, 'Mommy, that person's not Jewish.'"
For goodness sakes, these rules are 2500 years old, if not older. Should we go back to stoning people for adultery?
“As a christian, we try to honor most of the Jewish law...”
!?
Bacon (split hoof, no cud), catfish (no scales), six tats (one is a Cross.) I’m a baaaad boy. Good thing Sts. Peter and Paul weighed in on this.
“OK tattooed FReepers....sign up.”
Present. ;)
"back in the days of the bible, a pork chop could kill you!"
he was talking about all the silly dietary rules and how they have little place in today's society.
I agree...but a lot of folks have a 'good attitude' towards God, but do wholly their own thing. I suspect we are on the same page...
Have you ever tried a Chinese dish called Moo Goo Gai Panda?
Delicious!
Best tattoo I ever saw was on a twenty-something girl who tattooed her name as part of her tramp stamp. That was she avoids those awkward moments when the wrong name is called out. Very functional, tres chic. /Semi-sarc
Add me to the list, please.
Well, there are a whole list of odd Leviticus rules. I like how everyone thinks someone is not God-fearing if they have a tattoo, but think nothing is wrong with any of the below...
For example:
Don’t wear a garment of cloth made with two different kinds of thread.
Other ones not followed today:
If a man goes to bed with a woman in her menstrual period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her blood, and she has exposed the source of her blood; both of them are to be cut off from their people.
Take the man who cursed outside the camp, have everyone who heard him lay their hands on his head, and have the entire community stone him.
‘If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. Everything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; also everything that she sits on shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. And whoever touches anything that she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. If anything is on her bed or on anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. And if any man lies with her at all, so that her impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.’
The old joke was that you could tell that a neighborhood was Jewish if it had a lot of Chinese restaurants nearby.
maybe I should have said ‘much’ of the law, not ‘most’.
Bacon, shrimp, mowed the yard on Saturday...no tats. But I have several christian friends that are quite strict Sabbath-keepers.
I’m not trying to pick an argument with you. I would never get a tattoo just because I’m not a fan of graffitti in general.
But the point is valid that if you’re shaving your facial hair and modifying your nose, it is hypocritical to get het up about tattoos. After all, these rules are 2500 years old, if not older. Should we go back to stoning people for adultery?
Here!
I doubt they gave it a second thought. SS members had their numbers tattooed on their upper arm. The number thing isn't Nazi. It's German. They numbered everything. Ever see a cork from a bottle of German wine?
Other ones not followed today:
FYI, religious Jews do not wear shatnez (garment made of mixed fiber) and women visit the mikvah after their period, before resuming relations.
The reason we do not stone people, the laws mandating capital punishment can not be applied until the Temple has been rebuilt and the Sanhedrin reconvened as the governing body. Until that time, we follow the secular law.
LOL. I prefer the Baby Seal “Club” Sandwich...
I bet there would be less of it. Has God changed His mind about it? Being under Grace doesn't excuse the sin.
Just as an aside, I've always wondered about the Jews taking on modern culture, yet still saying they remain Jewish. We all are repulsed by the Taliban, but at least they are trying to follow their Satanic rules. A Jew's Laws haven't changed, yet they have adapted to more progressive attitudes. It seems most Jews are atheists now and being Jewish is a racial label rather than a religious one. Even the most conservative Jews don't stone adulterers and other more "draconian" actions today. Why get exercised about the food you eat, yet allow homosexuality and adultery when Sodom was destroyed over sexual sin, not about the food they ate.
I’ll work on something...I have a few thoughts about what to do...
Not true. Hitler loved serving pork and ham to starving Jews on Yom Kippur.
....”Should we go back to stoning people for adultery?”.....
I bet there would be less of it. Has God changed His mind about it? Being under Grace doesn’t excuse the sin.
I have good news for you. They still practice that sort of thing in Iran . ..
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