Date: Sun Nov 02 16:48:13 1997
To: Frank Grose
From: Rob Weinberg
Subject: Re: Cartoon
At 03:29 PM 11/2/97 0600, you wrote:
I'll let the smoke clear (and my blood pressure drop) a little before I respond to the rest of your message. Gotta come up with some tactful, intelligent way of politely disagreeing with you. I can see by your comments you haven't learned a thing I've been trying to teach you! ; )
Gee, I didn't think there was anything in that last one to get your blood pressure up about. Certainly wasn't trying to bait you. I promise you, I did not INTEND to offend. No joke, now. Did I really? Could it be, I'm just asking, that it is I who am starting to get through to you? The very nature of what we're talking about can engender strong emotions, even when one side is trying not to do so. I think that's really the lesson of what we learn as we grapple with how we reconcile public activities with private beliefs.
Date: Sun Nov 02 17:37:22 1997
To: Frank Grose
From: Rob Weinberg
Subject: Re: Cartoon III
At 04:11 PM 11/2/97 0600, you wrote:
I just found an editorial in the online edition of the Jerusalem Post on the subject of intolerance. I haven't read it yet, but I send it along hoping it will be of interest to both of us.
Here's the background as much as I know of it. There is a movement afoot in Israel by ultra orthodox "right wing" Jews who are trying to turn Israel into an entirely religious society. It's the Jewish and Israeli version of the "intolerance" I speak of in America by the "Christian right."
For religious Jews, many things are forbidden, or required. Driving on the Sabbath is forbidden. Cooking, turning on lights or using electricity, work of any kind, no matter how trivial. There are some parts of Israel where to drive through it on the Sabbath, will get you stoned. Literally. Israel, they say, is the Jewish homeland. There's no room, they say, for people who don't believe as they do, or who don't practice Judaism as devoutly. That means there's no room for compromise or conciliation on the Palestinian issue. It means women have their place. It means kosher food, or no food at all. It means all sorts of things. Imagine practicing Christianity as you do, but living in a state that is Greek Orthodox, and that you're REQUIRED to live and go about your business according to the way they practice. Same concept.
There are basically three groups of Jews: orthodox, conservative and reform. Within orthodoxy, there are sects like the Hasidim, but generally speaking, the orthodox are the most devout. Not all are right wing zealots by any stretch, but there is a growing political movement in Israel.
I was raised attending reform temples, although today when I go I prefer the services of conservative synagogues, just because I like to hear the Hebrew. Reform don't keep kosher, and may not keep all the commandments relating to the Sabbath and holidays. They're more likely to intermarry, women have more "rights" in the participating, becoming rabbis, etc. Conservatives are somewhere in the middle, they may or may not keep kosher, they've only recently permitted women to become rabbis, but generally they're a little more "observant" than reform Jews.
Originally, children who are born of Jewish mothers are automatically Jewish. A Jewish father alone, is not enough, and those children have to convert, bar mitzah for boys, the mikveh or ritual bath and cleansing for women. There's been a movement in reform and conservatism, especially in America, for a number of years to relax those strictures and make it easier for anyone born of either parent to be considered "a Jew." The orthodox movement referred to in the article don't want those relaxed that way.
About six months ago, the rabbis of the orthodoxy "proclaimed" that reform or conservative Jews aren't "real" Jews. Now, this was bound to offend many Americans, who made substantial contributions to the creation of the Jewish homeland. As an aside, my grandfather was a russian immigrant. He had no place for religion, but he made many trips and contributions to israel. I'm sure he'd have very strong feelings on this if he were alive today. Me, I think they're nuts, and no one's gonna' tell me I'm not "Jewish enough." But that's how it starts....
So the article is referring to the raging debate in Israel about what kind of state it will be. Unlike America, which was founded recognizing religious pluralism, Israel was ostensibly founded to provide a place "for Jews." Elements of religion are woven into the fabric of government by design, but only recently are the religious right coming into political power. What you're seeing is the rise of a very vocal political minority who want Israel to become an entirely religious state, and to have their secular laws governed by religious ideology. Now that I think about it, not much different from Iran or Iraq if they had their way, only Judaism instead of Islam.
What shames me, is that it appears the right wing orthodox Jewish zealots have learned nothing about what it means to be persecuted. When a minority who has been persecuted for centuries suddenly comes into political control, they should be the last to discriminate, but no, they've not learned that lesson. I've alluded to the Palestinian situation before, and that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Failure to learn from history. Those Jews in Israel who are taking the all or nothing hard line are no different from those zealots in this country who want it their way, or no way, and to hell with everyone else. If they don't like it, they don't have to stay.
What it shows is that Israel is not immune to the kind of "intolerance" I speak about in our discussions about the "right" in our country. Same game, different name. I certainly don't have the answer for Israel, but I think what the "right" over there is doing is terribly, horribly wrong. I would hate for some orthodox Jew in control over there to say I wasn't "Jewish enough" to go there, and if I didn't like it, tough. But that's the way it looks like they're trying to go, some of them anyway.
Hope that helps explain and give some background to the article. There's a two volume book called "The Jewish Book of Why" that explains a lot of things about Judaism. If you're in a bookstore, you might want to check it out.
How's the blood pressure?
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