There are a few things I want to make myself more clear about on what I have blogged about previously here. I do not think that I properly explained myself when I talked about Synagogues and Judaism in Israel. Here in Israel, there are Jews from everywhere in the the world, as I have mentioned meeting many of them, and there is a synagogue to suit every one of their needs. However, many-if not all- of those synagogues are in Jerusalem. THere is a Conservative shul in Tel Aviv but it is small and not regularly attended nor do many people attend it in general. In Jerusalem, it is AMAZING how many different services you can attend with in the city in walking distance of almost anywhere near the old city. Also, it is wonderful that there are no dues that need to be paid to the synagogues by those that attend, and the government helps to fund the synagogues. However, the rest of the country does not have those options and many of them are not aware of their options in terms of practicing Judaism, at all. For example, many of the people on my Kfar do not know anything about the Reform or Conservative movements or what they mean and are actually very interested to learn from me and talk about them because they much more agree with the ideals of those movements than that of Orthodox Judaism, which is all they know. For this reason, they do not attend Shul regularly but practice in their home or with friends and do not daven regularly because they do not have a Shul nearby with which they connect in ideals and practice. For this reason, they consider themselves "Secular".
Another point I was trying to make is that there is not representation of the reform and conservative movements in the Knesset while there is representation for the "secular" and "religious" groups. In my opinion, the "secular" representatives do not represent those that could be considered conservative or reform or somewhere along the spectrum. So, while they are free to choose which synagogue they attend, their beliefs are not represented for them. Also, they are not free to be married by any rabbi, only an Israeli Orthodox rabbi. THere are flaws in the system, is all I am trying to say, in terms of people who want to practice in their own way in a synagogue in the remainder of the country, where the synagogues of Jerusalem are not available to them. THere is also a lack of education about the options in the rest of the country. It just makes me appreciate how most places in the US have these options for Jews, even though it lacks many of the beautiful aspects of being a Jew in Israel, in the country built on Judaism and our ideals. While I understand that the reform and conservative movements were born in the Diaspora, I think that Israel can adopt them more fully and that many Israeli Jews would identity with them rather than identifying themselves as being secular, enabling them to have more of a Jewish identity rather than considering themselves more "israeli". Many secular israelis say this, that they are more "israeli" than "jewish" which is an oxy moron to me, but to them to be "jewish" is to be "religious". For this reason, 60% of Israelis identify themselves as being secular.
Also, it is not that I believe religious and secular Israelis are unable to coexist or be friends with one another, but that it amazes me the differences and disputes among them because we are all Jews. Some of each groups are not respectful to the other and some of them do not believe in being friends, but for the most part they do and simply disagree hugely on what being "Jewish" and living in a "Jewish State" means, which is funny to me because we are all Jewish! It is also sad because I do not see a solution to some of the political disputes on this topic.
On the same note, I think it is important to note that Jews have always been a small group, it is how we are meant to be. We grow and we fade and we are isolated and we are powerful, but we never go away and I truly believe we won't, even if we morph again. We morphed into the Shtetls of Poland, the movements in the Diaspora, into a nation in Israel, and soon I think we will morph into more of a culture than a religion, even though the religious aspects will remain present. Think about it, right now we are 1% of the US population and 11% of the representative in Congress. What other group can say this? It is the only time in the world that people proudly display their Judaism in the world, and proudly support the State of Israel. I feel strongly, no matter what anyone tells me about the Jewish population withering or about Jews needing to make aliyah, that Judaism is at a powerful point and that we will continue to flourish in our own way, as a small but powerful religious and cultural group.
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