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So, as you're aware, HufflePom over on Twitter has been posting every day for almost a year asking for Jewish ethnic/cultural representation in The Sims, and I thought I would suggest some concrete ideas to help!
HufflePom has particularly focused on adding food to the game, and I second that suggestion! I have some mods by IceMunMun and RobinTheLocksley to add custom foods, but it would be great to get official assets so Jewish players on console could represent themselves more easily.
Traditional head coverings are also a thing. Men often wear the little skullcap, called a kippah or a yarmulke depending. Married women often wear scarves or tichels (I use the Cottage Living hair with a scarf attached or the turban from City Living for that). Other than that, Jewish Sims often dress like their non-Jewish neighbors (with some exceptions in very Orthodox communities; they dress more formally, in black suits and hats for the men, long skirts for the women).
There are also a lot of holidays, which don't have to be religious! non-religious Jews celebrate a lot of them as just cultural things. The main things we're missing are some foods (apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah, challah bread--often round for Rosh Hashanah but regular challah is served every Friday, passover food like matzahs, charoset, and matzah ball soup) and things like a shofar (it's a ram's horn that you blow into and it makes a very distinctive sound that's an important part of the Rosh Hashanah service, but people own them decoratively). Also I have a CC chuppah (wedding canopy).
Gameplay-wise, culturally Jewish folks value learning in general and Jewish learning in particular, so a Jewish culture skill would be super cool. You could gain it by interacting with the holiday items, eating Jewish foods, and reading books. ESPECIALLY reading books. That said, it sounds like HufflePom was envisioning more of an SDX drop than an actual pack, so that might be more than you want to get into for a simple SDX drop. One of the possible rewards for improved Jewish culture skill would be better shofar blowing. :D (That could be hilarious, TBH!)
You could also possibly do some holiday themed scenarios: Celebrate Hannukah! eat fried foods, give gifts, and light candles. Celebrate Passover! have a dinner party and drinks, tell stories, eat the passover foods. Celebrate Purim! Dress up in costumes, drink, give each other food gifts. Celebrate Rosh Hashanah! eat the special foods, go to services, use the shofar, have a grand meal. (I have a lot of custom holidays set up in my saves, LOL, so I've thought of this a lot.)
ANYWAY. I thought concrete suggestions for what you could include might be helpful!
- simsplayer8183 years agoHero
Really good idea. Cultural representation that is different to mine is something that really interests me and the more of it in the game, the better.
What I really like about culture drops in the Sims is that each item or recipe often gets that little paragraph of info explaining what things are and what they are for and I love that.
I understand Hanukkah starts next week so happy holidays to you. Maybe they'll add something like this for Hanukkah 2023, let's hope so.
- xochiquetzl_xkvn3 years agoSeasoned Ace
@simsplayer818 Thank you, yes, chag sameach ("happy holidays")!
<joke>
Jewish texting: chag sameach!
Autocorrect: chagrin sandwich!
</joke>
Yeah, I feel like lack of exposure to other cultures and traditions... let's just say that it's easier to hate [insert cultural or ethnic group here] if you've never met one and don't know anything about their culture, and harder to hate [insert cultural or ethnic group here] if your first association is your nice neighbor/coworker/customer/the guy who pulled you off the battlefield and carried you to a hospital. Also, if someone then tells you all [insert cultural or ethnic group here] people are [negative stereotype] you're more likely to reject that information. So representation is important for EVERYONE, not just minorities.
Also, yeah, I can just see this as being fun!
- simsplayer8183 years agoHero@xochiquetzl_xkvn I absolutely agree. As a Geordie people have a certain image of us as party animals and football hooligans. TV shows portray us as speaking in a way nobody can understand. So first impressions or ideas of our culture can be totally different to reality. I don't actually have any Sims like me, I try and pick as many different cultures and lifestyles as I can and try and learn about how to represent them as accurately as I can.
I have some Jewish Sims but struggled to find enough cultural content for them so I did the best with them that I could. But I'm surprised there isn't more there already. Hopefully we'll see more at some point.
It's always good to ask and as we Geordies say "shy bairns get nowt"!
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