I'm not as you would call a very religious Jew. Yes, I go to
synagogue twice a year for high holidays but compared to Israeli
Orthodox Jews I'm basically atheist. Although I don't pray every day and
celebrate Shabbat every Friday, I am still Jewish. It's how I define
myself and it's who I am.
The Israeli Jews however have a different view
of us reform Jews in the United States. Let us flashback 20 years from
now, the soon to be Israeli president after attending a reform service
in the United States, while walking out the doors of the synagogue said
"this isn't Judaism."
During a media summit today, June 25, we were shown a
Facebook interactive map showing to what countries are specific
countries connecting with (i.e having the most friends on Facebook) the
most and the least. Each country was represented by a circle, the
greater the circle the greater the connection with that country was.
When Israel was clicked on its most connected countries were it's
surrounding countries (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon). The United States
however wasn't even in Israel's top 20 most connected countries.
Israel is the homeland of the Jews and it is very
important that it stays connected with the Jews of the world. The United
States has the second (to Israel) largest population of Jews in the
world, but we don't connect with one another.
The strict ancient traditions of the orthodox Jews
in Israel are much different than the way reform Jews practice their
religion in America. Due towards cultural differences such as this we
have become isolated within one another creating separate communities.
In the future maybe the Israelites will look past our liberal ways and
we can all be one big happy Jewish community.
---Johnny Scher
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