After reading your retort I understand that your original missive is more or less congruent to my views so, I apologize to you but I still have some issues I feel I must air out with you in this public domain medium. In order to do this (if you are game) I need to deal with your points.
I was raised as a SUPER Patriot, NRA-America Love it or leave it household,(father fought in WWII) and supported the GOP right down the line, yet having a “AHAVAT YISRAEL” worldview that was both Zionist and practical. So I know a thing or two about pride in the flag, the right to bear arms and all that. Nobody we knew growing up were as Patriotic as we were. Nobody we knew went out skeet-shooting on Shabbat. Despite that, we mixed our love of country with our love of Jewish heritage and pride in both. When you state that you “care more about this country than I do about Judaism” a red light goes off in my head.
I rejected American Judaism as it was presented to me. Liberal Democratic politics that the Jews (for some reason) cling to is a denial of reality and Jewish history. I do not get it either but that is what we have. Given that, that does not mean you have to reject the whole G-damn barrel of apples. Do you know any Jew who actually relates to and likes going to the Temple? Do you know of any Liberal rabbi that sees Judaism other than a business?
As a Jewish baby-boomer (I'm 53) yes, my generation gave up but only through total assimilation, ignorance and rejection. How can one utterly reject Judaism when you know nothing about it? How can you embrace Zen-TM-Jane Fonda Buddhism when you don't even know what the Talmud is? Answer, ignorance and a desire to run away from who and what you are because you're embarrased or ashamed to be a friggin’ Jew! My generation was not trained to be wimps. It was a misconstrued, ignorant life path choice. It is not a black or white, wimp or rambo equation. Jews need to know more about themselves, history and yes, religious belief system in order to become what they like to call nowadays, “empowered”.
We stand by America, we stand by Israel because as Glenn Beck likes to point out, it is the right thing to do in this screwed-up world. American Jews who are DemocRATS should not be written off rather they must be TAUGHT and informed. I have managed to turn around some hard core Lefties in my time but it must be done tactfully and via reason. So please, do not write off your brothers and sisters.
You'd marry a Jewish girl only to please your grandmother? Marry a Jewish girl for yourself. Ask your grandmother why it is important to marry a Jewish girl and raise Jewish kids, ask her, please. Get the reasons behind her logic.
Regarding Israeli girls, yes many are liberal, cheese-eating surrender monkeys (like the French) but many more understand the situation and are politically to the right.
Your statement : American Jews care more about the Sierra Club than they do about Israel” is probably true and it is sad. I can only tell you that as Jews become more assimilated and ignorant as JEWS, they never make the leap to the Zionist camp, they can't, it's too far ahead of the game for them. You're being a 5th generation American Jews amazes me that you still even care, kol ha kavod to you!
I agree about your views concerning where Liberalism is leading the Jewish people. I am 100% with you on that. You over there have many battles to fight in order to restore America to what she was intended to be. Nobody is asking you to make Aliyah to Israel BUT we need your support by fighting the forces who want to destroy both Little Satan (Israel) and then Big Satan (USA). So, brother, I am in total agreement with you. I just put my energies into this project called Zionism and Israel both of which dovetail American values and the American psyche.
Lahetraot for now,
Netz
Thanks Netz.
Let me just say that I don’t reject modern-day Judaism knowing nothing about it. I was bar mitzvahed and performed the entire service, including reading all eight Torah portions. I went to Hebrew school where we read from the Talmud, the Mishnah. I’m conversationally fluent in Hebrew. And what’s with the mention of Buddhism? I have no intention of becoming a Buddhist or a Hanoi Jane fan. At least Buddhists don’t stab their own kind in the back.
In many respects, I’m ashamed to be a member of American Jewry. Yes, I fully admit that. You want me to take what my grandmother says seriously when she has voted for every Democratic nominee since Adlai Stevenson?
I don’t need to belong to a synagogue to support the state of Israel. It’s in my blood. Remember, Judaism is more than a religion. Hitler gassed Jewish converts to Christianity as willingly as he gassed secular and religious Jews.
The heroes of the Holocaust weren’t those who prayed to God as they were led away to be gassed. Heroes were men like Mordechai Anielewicz. Only 23 years old, yet wise enough to know that you weren’t going to be able to kill Nazis by praying to God. The Jewish population is in trouble in this country because we have no men like Mordechai. He understood that sometimes you must fight for freedom, even if the effort seems fruitless. He knew that one more dead German meant one more grieving widow, and he understood the significance of that.
The religion isn’t as important as the desire to live and to be free. Jews, religious or not, that vote for less freedom don’t deserve it.
Both you and 10thAmerndmentGuy are seeing Judaism through the prism of the American Reform Movement, in which the main principle seems to be “tikkun olam”, changing the world, which to them means the Democratic Party’s platform (for those who don’t believe me, check out the “Religious Actions Center” (RAC) website.
It seems to me that both of you, whether in New York State or in Israel, might benefit from expanding your knowledge of Judaism. Google “kiruv”, or outreach, and you will find a myriad of groups and individuals who will teach about Judaism, at no charge, in one-on-one sessions, in person or by telephone. Traditional Judaism, as expressed in Pirkei Avot, the “Sayings of our Fathers”, advises not to become too close to politicians, because they will use one for their own purposes, and you will find that many non-Reform Jews who are religiously involved are apolitical or are social conservatives with values much like your own, except that they believe that G-d rules the world, everything happens for a reason and hidden miracles (hashgacha pratit) are all around us.
Your ancestors came from an unbroken chain of people who underwent all sorts of discrimination and depredations solely in order to remain Jews and help ensure that their descendants would be Jews. I think you owe it to yourselves and your own descendants to learn more about the “ikkar”, or the essence, of Judaism, particularly outside of the worldview of the American Reform movement.