Religion

Judaism

Israel is a Jewish state but also a progressive state; it is certainly not a theocratic one although that could happen if current trends continue unabated.  Curiously enough, the state guarantees religious freedom for all relgions except Judaism.  Judaism is subject to the whims of a chief rabbinate.  Jews never ever had a chief Rabbi until the British came along, but now they are have tasted power and its use and abuse.
Judith did a painting that I am very fond of that portrays a Jewish woman at the wall.  The scanner didn't do a very good job of rendering the color, or maybe the artwork doesn't do well going from a reflective medium like paper to an emissive medium like a monitor.

Orthodox Judaism

 

Almost everything else: what we call Conservative and Reform and Reconstructionist and what they call Progressive

There are 4 million reform Jews in Israel, they just don't know it!

 

  Fortunately, there are places where the reform is making inroads or at least establishing beachheads.  We went to Congregation Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv.  Friday evening, we went to Mevasseret Zion for shabbat services.  It was certainly a unique experience to hear a devar Torah delivered entirely in Hebrew but of course that makes sense: Reform Judaism is all about meaning, and that means you deliver your devar Torah in whatever venacular you happen to use.  No point in straining to satisfy the tourists: they wouldn't do that if you visited their shul?   Saturday morning, some of us went to a Bar Mitzvah at KOL HANESHAMAH CONGREGATION - 1 Asher Street, Jerusalem 93502, Tel:02-6724878, E-mail: kkh@netvision.net.il.  (as of this writing, 23-Apr-2000, their website was not working)
 
 

If you are interested in other progressive Judaism web sites in Israel, see http://pw1.netcom.com/~bonnieg/isrcong.html.
 

Jews For Jesus

There is a proper blessing for the Jews for Jesus:

"May G-d, bless him, keep the Jews for Jesus
Far away from us"

I have a great deal of disdain for the Jews for Jesus.  Judaism is monotheism, a belief in one G-d, except that you don't have to beleive anything to be Jewish.  Christianity is the belief in Jesus.  There is not much wrong with Christianity, but at least the Christians know who they are.  The Jews for Jesus are trying hard to be several things at once, and failing dismally at it.  Why not simply become another kind of Protestant?
On the other hand, the labels we use to describe our religions are merely conveniences; who am I to criticize somebody simply because their belief system doesn't fit into my preconceived categories?

Everything else

Christianity

When peace comes between Arabs and Jews, which might happen in my lifetime, we will have to work out an even more acrimonious struggle between the sects within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The Church is a fabulous building with a very strange shape and a labyrinth interior which is beautiful and timeless.  We were there two weeks before Easter, and there were lots of people wandering around.  I felt sorry for the people who are trying to have a religious experience there - it is too crowded.

Islam

Does anybody remember the Golden Age of the Jews of Spain?  It lasted roughly 500 years from about 750 to about 1250 or so.  Why was that the Golden Age?  Because of Muslim control of the Iberian pennisula and progressive thinking on the part of the Arab rulers.  The Koran mandates that Jews be treated well, the Torah mandates that we treat all strangers well, for we remember being strangers in a strange land.  The fact is that, over the past thousand years or so, the Jews and the Arabs have gotten along far better than either the Jews and the Christians or the Arabs and the Christians.  The last hundred years have been a historical aberation.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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