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Updated 11/20/09 @ 11:30AM EDT
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Posted in: Secular, but Jewish
12/01/08 05:21 PM
Whether I agree with Uriel or not, the important thing is for people to realize how important the issue is. Much stronger interdependence between Jews in America and Jews in Israel - on a personal level - is critical to the future of the Jewish people. I agree that the threats to Jewish survival, both physical and cultural, are significant. We therefore cannot afford the luxury of the significant gap and almost total lack of communication that separates Israeli Jews from American Jews. For American Jews, I think that gap exists because they cannot connect with Israeli Jews in the only language that can connect them - their Judaism - their Jewishness. Israeli Jews are simply too weak in their commitment to, involvement in, and knowledge of Judaism to be credible Jewish conversationalists. To American Jews looking at Israelis, the rising standard of living, the cultural connection to Europe and to every modern cultural stream but modern Judaism, they see a community of Jews as likely to assimilate into Western culture as the vast majority of American Jews. To engaged American Jews, you can't be a part of the Jewish Project unless you are committed and living your Judaism. American Jews, therefore, have little or nothing to say to Israeli Jews on a personal level - they simply don't connect. So this is a huge problem - perhaps the central problem - for the Jewish people today. Like I said. Uriel may be right. I may be right. Neither of us may be right. But the issue is important and needs to be discussed publicly and honestly. Chaver Steve
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