Superstar Mel Gibson's drunken meltdown made world news, and it's going to be one of the topics for discussion among the ladies of my English circle, one of whom now wants to read up on Judaism, Jewish history, and recent articles about Mel Gibson.
"What passages from the Bible should I read to understand Judaism?" she asked breathlessly (no exaggeration; you should've seen the state she was in). I was at a loss as to how best to get a student rapidly acquainted with Judaism. I pointed her to the enormous Wikipedia entry on the subject, but she seemed daunted. Beliefnet was no better; its Judaism page contains no obvious links to "Judaism basics." As for biblical passages... I recommended Genesis and Exodus to her as starters. The student in question is mu-gyo ("[having] no religion"), and the Bible is pretty new to her.
We had a laugh when we surfed over to the Korean Wikipedia entry on Judaism (yu-dae-gyo or yu-t'ae-gyo) and saw only one line on the religion. Essentially, the article says, "Judaism: the religion of the Jews; currently about 15 million adherents." Good luck researching the topic in Korean! (I kid.)
(If you're reading this secret parenthetical, Joel, you're a fuckin' fatass. I don't care how thin you get!)
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