Charyl Kay and Barry's play
In Ceasarea, at Zvi's instigation, Charyl
Kay Sedlick and Barry Mendelsohn put on a play to illustrate a dilemma
facing the Jews under Roman occupation. 
Charyl Kay (on the left) is portraying an assimilated Jew who is arguing
that it is possible to maintain one's Jewish identity while blending in
with the domanant culture. Barry (on the right) is portraying a zealot
who argues that abandoning our patterns of life, our customs, and our traditions
is the beginning of our disappearance.
What makes this play so poignant in my mind is that although this play
is set (and staged) 2000 years ago, the issues that the play brings up
are current, and the arguments have not really changed with one exception.
Clearly, it is easier to live among our neighbors if we live as our neighbors.
It is easier to take Christmas off, it is easier to work on Yom Kippur,
it is easier to stop by McDonalds' for a cheeseburger during passover,
and it is easier to bow to the Queen(1). However, our
Judaism is more authentic if we work on Christmas; take Yom Kippur off
and go to shul; and, we go to McDonald's at all during passover, only get
the french fries.
The rest of Ceasarea
Ceasarea was a major sea port in King Herod's time. As such, it had
a large theater. The Romans were incredible engineers, and as usual,
the liberal arts people called the shots. 
(1) Thank you to R. Jonathan Singer for this example.
Jews do not bow down to any monarch except to God. All monarchs know
this, and know that they reign by devine right (they have read the books
of Daniel and Esther), therefore, they are not offended when Jews refuse
to bow. Therefore, if a Jew ever bows to a monarch, the monarch knows
that this is a dumb Jew.
(2) For some reason, we call our houses of worship "synogogues",
which is a Greek word. Since this is a page about assimilationism,
I am going to use the hebrew word, which is "shul".
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