Page 36 - Jewish News_March 2021

36A March 2021 COMMENTARY

Secular Israeli Jews are becoming more Jewish High time to stop treating Israel differently

By Harold M. Halpern
pon my return from Israel in in Jerusalem, a research and education everything and start anew as if the in numbers, to make sure they did not he recent spate of annual an-
late June 2019, I began writing organization. Goodman wrote a se- past was all baggage. Goodman calls oppose the United Nations partition ti-Israel resolutions at the UN is
Uabout political, legal and so- ries of books over a period of the last this “angry” secularism.” In contrast, plan in 1948. Ta telling reminder that Israel is
cial issues. My columns reflected upon decade introducing secular Israelis to Ha’am’s secularism desired not to rid Conditions have changed in the last treated according to a totally different
Israel’s democracy protected by its Su- the foundations of Jewish tradition. the Jew of all the past but to repair and 72 years. Goodman is of the opinion standard than all other countries in the
preme Court and threatened by attacks His latest book is The Wondering Jew: heal Judaism. Goodman characterizes that the new “smart” secular Judaism international system.
on its indepen- Israel and the Search for Jewish Iden- this as “smart” secularism. will propel Israel into a more pluralis- Of course, Israel deserves attention
dence; the legal tity. Many of the early settlers were tic society. He is optimistic of the out-and scrutiny, as does every other na-
and political sta- Goodman’s thesis is that the secu- angry secularists who felt that totally come. He sees the shift on the horizon.tion. But it also merits equal treatment
tus of the Golan lar obsession with learning about tradi- throwing overboard their Judaism was Goodman is certain that such a – nothing more, nothing less.
Heights and the tional Judaism is a realization that “we the only way to give birth to the new change in Israel is not a threat to Ju- First, Israel is the only state whose
West Bank; the want to be that kind of a secular Israeli liberated Jew – Jews free of restraint, daism. Israel is a Jewish state. Israelis capital city, Jerusalem, with which the
impact of the nor- that is connected to the past without enabling them to unleash all their cre- speak Hebrew, their friends are Jew-Jewish people have been umbilically
malization agree- being controlled by the past. Where ative human powers. ish, their children and grandchildren linked for more than 3,000 years, is not
ments with Arab can we start?” Now, as Israel has become a ma- will marry someone Jewish and the recognized by almost all other coun-
Harold M. Halpern countries and the Goodman discussed his book and ture developed country, there is a re- rhythms of Jewish life are controlled tries, with the notable exception of the
Palestinians; whether American and philosophy in a podcast sponsored alization among secularists that there by the Jewish calendar. Judaism is in United States and a handful of others.
Israeli Jews are drifting apart; and the by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in are treasures in Judaism which were the very air that is breathed. Jewish Imagine the absurdity of this. For-
multiple elections within two years. partnership with the Shalom Hartman abandoned. They understand that to be continuity as Jews is not in doubt. This eign diplomats live in Tel Aviv while
In the previous issue of The Jewish Institute. He said, “There’s some- truly free means that one may not only enables Judaism to be dynamic without conducting virtually all their business
News, I wrote of one certainty: that the thing very big happening in Israel…. reject the past but may also embrace fear for its future. in Jerusalem, an hour’s drive away,
outcome of the upcoming fourth elec- there’s a new generation of Israelis, the treasures and values which en- Goodman leaves us with the con-where the prime minister’s office, the
tion in March, largely a referendum on most of them secular… searching in a hance secular Judaism. Goodman says clusion that Israelis “are not as divided Knesset (Parliament), the Supreme
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, very serious way for Jewish identity… this is now going on in Israel. Secu- as our politics suggest…. Most Israelis Court and the Ministry of Foreign
is uncertain. It remains so as I write connected to Jewish sources. It’s not larists are deepening their connections agree on most issues… We are not po-Affairs are all located.
this article. secular Israelis becoming religious… to Judaism without being bound by its larized… on two massive issues... right In fact, look at listings of world
This enables me to take a break (but, rather) trying to become more authority. versus left, secular versus religious.” cities, including places of birth in pass-
from legal and political issues. In Jewish.” Goodman sees it seriously playing “And that’s because most Israelis ports (with the exception again of the
this article, I write about what Micah Goodman writes of late 19 centu- out in Beit Prat, the network of Jew- love Judaism… but don’t like the rab-U.S.), and you’ll see something strik-
th
Goodman calls a phenomenon of sec- ry and early 20 century Jewish think- ish learning centers for young adults, binate.” ing – Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; Pre-
th
ular Israelis being obsessed with tradi- ers, such as Micha Josef Berdyczewski forging a new Israeli mainstream that “And they do not want to (have) a toria, South Africa; Lima, Peru; and
tional Judaism. Secular Jews are about and Ahad Ha’am who argued that the champions a vibrant engagement with military regime (occupying) the West Jerusalem, sans country – orphaned, if
44% of the Jewish population of Israel Jewish people needed to free them- Judaism, together with dedication to Bank (but) they don’t want… a with-you will.
with about 20% Orthodox and ultra- selves from the constrictions and au- Zionism, individualism and respect for drawal (which puts them) where they Second, Israel is the only UN
Orthodox, and the balance Traditional thority of traditional Judaism in order all. The student body has grown from are threatened by the Palestinians.” member state whose very right to exist
Jews. to unleash their creative powers. an original five students in 2006 to Goodman tells us that the problem is under constant challenge.
Micah Goodman is a Research Goodman tells us that Berdycze- more than a 1,000 today. is these “are two like tensions or par- Notwithstanding the fact that Is-
Fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute wski’s secularism wanted to discard Goodman observes a similar trend adoxes.” And I would add, with opti-rael embodies an age-old connection
of incorporating Judaism in popular mistic belief, that a way will be found with the Jewish people, as repeatedly
music and literature. to resolve the paradoxes. cited in the most widely read book in
Goodman reminds us that the or- Harold Halpern is a retired attorney the world, the Bible; that it was reborn
igin of the role of religion in Israel is residing in Lakewood Ranch. He is a based on the recommendations of both
traced back to the “status quo” agree- board member of the American Asso-the League of Nations and UN; and that
ment of Prime Minister David Ben- ciation of Jewish Jurists and Lawyers it has been a UN member since 1949,
Gurion at the inception of the Jewish and of the West Coast Chapter of the there’s a relentless chorus denying
state, giving control over religious af- American Jewish Committee. Israel’s very political legitimacy.
fairs to the ultra-Orthodox, then small No one would dare assail the right
to exist of many other countries whose
Have you ever been asked basis for statehood is infinitely more

questions about Israel questionable than Israel’s, such as
those that were created by brute force,
or antisemitism that occupation or imperialist mapmakers.
Just look around at how many nations
you can’t answer? fit those categories – including, by the
way, quite a few Arab countries. Why,
then, is it open hunting season only on
CRConnect, a program of
CR C onnec t Israel? Could it possibly have anything
to do with the fact that it’s the one Jew-
the Heller CRC, addresses ish-majority country in the world?
Third, Israel is the only UN mem-
these difficult questions ber state that’s been targeted for anni-

such as Palestinian vs. Israeli hilation by another UN member state.
sovereignty, Israel as a

“superpower,” the “Apartheid”

claim, peace in the region
and much more.

MOVING?
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