Submitted Comments RSS Feed Comments by Steven J Weinberg
RSS Feed Breaking News
Updated 02/09/12 @ 05:54PM EST
- A poll showed that nearly half of likely voters believed the United States should use military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
- Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a major figure in Reform Judaism, died in Toronto.
- The application for a proposed Hebrew-language charter school was accepted by the District of Columbia Public Charter School board.
- A truck driving calves from Eilat to the Golan Heights was hijacked into the West Bank.
- U.S. Rep. Howard Berman introduced legislation that would allow eligible Israeli nationals to receive non-immigrant investor visas in the United States.
- Poll: Half of U.S. voters back strike on nuclear Iran
- Reform leader Rabbi Gunther Plaut dies
- D.C. Hebrew-language charter school accepted for review
- Op-Ed: Kick the reaction addiction on campus
- Berman moves to grant investor visas to Israelis
- Holy cow! Calves hijacked into Palestinian territory
- Report: Israeli journalist also works for prime minister
- Larry Greenfield tapped to lead JINSA
Posted in: Secular, but Jewish
12/01/08 09:21 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