I highly recommend "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East" by Sandy Tolan. It's a non fiction work that puts you on an emotional roller coaster with a Palestinian and an Israeli. And not to be picky--but Orthodox Jews are not Haredi. Haredi can only be classified as ul;tra-Orthodox or fundamentalist.
The challenges that face the Jewish community world wide have been complex forever. Being defined as a race, ethic group, religion, nationality, ... the "who are we?" question, however, is not asked among Jews...only among non-Jews. Then, there is the question of who is an Israeli. Is being an Israeli being a citizen of Israel or someone who lives in Israel...a distinction that is alive and well in Israel. Further, to the orthodox Christian population, supporting the ultra-orthodox settlers who continue to capture and claim Palestinian land, is living out the tenets of the New Testament that calls for Israel to go to the sea for Jesus to return. As an American woman who is Jewish, whose family (Mother) came from Hungary and founded the first Hungarian Jewish Synagogue in Detroit, whose life has moved far beyond my own roots, I struggle with all of this. In Israel, I am not feeling Jewish enough; in Reno, I am clearly Jewish, but unaffiliated with any Jewish community; in my own family, we are all Jewish, but each practicing as we believe which spans from non-practicing to orthodox, with Reconstructionism (an American practice) in the middle. And, we all get along. Lest anyone think that the Jewish community is rare or unnatural in its internal strife of self-identity and rituals, the Protestant reformation is still happening, with more Christian sects than ever before. The Catholic Church tries to hold its own to a point, with breaches occuring continually. Islam is also struggling with what it is and how it is in the world today...and Hindus and Buddhists have a bit more freedom but, if you go to Nepal...you will see cultural practices that reflect the oldest of practices in both schools of prayer.
To add to this experience, perhaps for myself, I must accept the confusion as representing the search for spiritual understanding that began thousands of years ago. A search for some kind of rationale that will explain the unexplainable and provide security when and where there is none. In some way, all of us are right...and what is different shows up only in the details, in the dogma, in the minutia that is so small, but so powerful in keeping us separate. At the Western Wall, where millions of Jews come to pray, where millions of Christians and Muslim come to feel the spiritual presence of God... who is to say whether it is there or not there, whether millions are wrong or right? Jerusalem itself has a history of continual construction, destruction, and renewal. and, it seems to be continuing as we all debate these questions....
Would you like to share your thoughts?
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
2 Comments on Israel debate: Who/what is a Jew?