diet and special ceremonies. The diets of Jews are called kosher
             and restrict certain foods like pork and dairy products. Circumcision is a tradition
             performed on eight day-old Jewish boys in which the foreskin is removed from
             the penis (Wilkinson 82). Two other important ages in Judaism are thirteen for
             boys and twelve for girls. These are the ages at which Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
             occur, the celebration of reaching adulthood. Wilkinson comments that marriage
             and death are also times of family togetherness. A death of a Jew calls for a
             period of seven days of intense mourning and twenty-three days to return to
             There are three major religious holidays in Judaism. The first is the period
             between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is the beginning of the new year
             on Jewish calendars (Savage 47). Hanukkah is the eight day-long festival of
             lights that celebrates the trek across the desert during the Crusades and the oil
             that lasted all eight days. Passover is a holiday in which a spring feast is eaten
             in remembrance of the Israelites that left Egypt (Wilkinson 80).
             Jews attend services at synagogues, where they often don hats called
             yarmulkes. The Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday (Parrinder 91). In early days of
             Judaism, prayers were passed by word of mouth, but now prayer books are often
             Another religion from the Middle East is Islam, also called Muslim. This is
             a very strict religion that the vast majority of Middle Easterners follow. It
             means "submission to the will of God&q
             ...