Friday, February 3, 2006
Avraham Shmuel Lewin quotes Aaron Klein on being a yarmulke-wearing Jew in Israel in, Orthodox and Israeli: When the Two Don't Mix:
Asked to explain the institutionalized anti-religious practices he's encountered, Aaron replies, "It's the new nature of the cultural war in Israel. The great divide used to be the so-called right wing versus the so-called left wing. Essentially, whether or not to give up land to the Palestinians. Now the mask is coming off and the real battle is starting to be waged openly – religious nationalism versus anti-religious post-Zionism.
"More simply, is Israel supposed to be a Jewish state based on religious ideals or will it be a state like all others that just happens to be comprised mostly of Jews? At its core, it is what all the land withdrawals and proposed land withdrawals are about, and it's what my 'yarmulke problems' are about. That is the fight I am witnessing here. The victor will determine the future of Israel and the Jewish people."...
(H/T: mal)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: A Jewish State, or Just a State?.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/5599
1 Comment
Leave a comment to: A Jewish State, or Just a State?
Comment Info and Policy:
1) You must have Javascript enabled in your browser in order to comment (blame the spammers). If you don't know what that is, you're probably fine.
2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "http://" in it.
3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't necessarily agree with the tone and tenor of everything posted. In fact, sometimes people post things they don't really mean just to make other people look bad. The internet is an anonymous place for the most part. That said...
4) I welcome you to post here. I'd love to have your input, agree, disagree or just offer a different data point, really. If I didn't want any participation, I'd turn off comments. Be aware, however, that this blog and the comments section exist for my entertainment. Therefore, I reserve ALL RIGHTS here, including the right to remove any or all comments on nothing more than a whim. Please don't even bother complaining. I'm the one providing the space and the free news and thought buffet. I don't owe anyone anything.
Anyone who posts here will be treated as my guest. That means I'm happy to be polite as a default, but if anyone is rude to the host they'll be unceremoniously shown the door.
It may pay to recall a famous line from the Tom Selleck magnum opus, Mr. Baseball: "Jack-san, you want Yoji's advice about the babes, you come to Yoji with respect."
5) Enjoy your stay!
, p.44
Klein has got this exactly right. However, recent Jewish history - especially American Jewish history, but also that of European, Russian, and other Jewish communities - makes the answer clear: without Judaism, no sufficient basis remains for a national identity.
This explains the morbidly fascinating self-immolation of Israel's founding secular elite - it explains their total alienation from the imperative of national rebirth that was so immediately, naturally felt by their parents (to the point that they demonize and despise the settler movement that carries on those ideals), and it explains the venomously hateful attitudes towards the religious that is expressed on the pages of "cultured" journals like Ha'aretz.
All this is capped by the furious knowledge that Israelihood based on one-world socialism has failed as an alternative Judaism - just as socialism has failed around the world.
This all has strong, and painful - yet precise - parallels with the flameout of shame and fury that often characterizes the relationship between secular and Orthodox American Jews.