Modern Orthodoxy in Israel
Modern Orthodoxy in Israel is nothing of what you remember it to be in America. In America, Zionism, aliyah, and Israeli politics are ubiquitous but it's all sort of intellectual. It's books and lectures. We debate the topic, with a Zionist slant to be sure, but it's like a college class.
What's much more real are careers, shul - particularly issues involving women, and schooling issues. You go to shul and meet professors, lawyers, accountants, doctors, maybe even an engineer if he is over 50.
In Israel, it's all about land, Arabs, and guns. It's like living on a military base. And the talk is so different than in America. I wouldn't even call it talk, it's barking. I don't know why Hebrew, a semitic language, would sound harsher than English, a Germanic language, but it sure does. Maybe it's the aggressiveness and anger of the typical Israeli that makes is so.
People don't appear to converse here. Now, it's not so wonderful in Jewish New York. It's hard to finish a sentence in either place. But this is several levels worse.
Do they have a right to be so angry? I really don't think so. But I won't get into all that right now, won't get into how Israelis create most of their own problems. I deal with that in other posts.
The important thing for this post is just how different social life is here. Living in America, you hear all the hot debate and intellectualism and think that you'll get even more in Israel. You get less, way less. Every time I hear of an Israel intellectual or academic (and they have a few of them) I'm sort of surprised because the average person seems to be completely incapable of objective or even rational thought or to have any interest in books or facts or different perspectives.
This is true of the religious and chiloni. I worked for a year at a company full of secular Israelis. There was one guy there with whom it was possible to conduct an intelligent conversation on Israeli politics and another with whom it was possible to discuss other topics. The rest were maniacs. As for the religious ones, we have a global problem of group think and emotionalism with religious Jews today. Maybe it's a bit worse in Israel, particularly when it comes to Israeli politics.
Yes, I'm talking about Jews. Shocking no? And even the American Jews either become that way after a time or arrived that way, being of a certain type that probably didn't fit so well in America.
Israel isn't more of anything. It's totally different. All prospective olim have to understand this before uprooting their lives.
In Israel, it's all about land, Arabs, and guns. It's like living on a military base. And the talk is so different than in America. I wouldn't even call it talk, it's barking. I don't know why Hebrew, a semitic language, would sound harsher than English, a Germanic language, but it sure does. Maybe it's the aggressiveness and anger of the typical Israeli that makes is so.
People don't appear to converse here. Now, it's not so wonderful in Jewish New York. It's hard to finish a sentence in either place. But this is several levels worse.
Do they have a right to be so angry? I really don't think so. But I won't get into all that right now, won't get into how Israelis create most of their own problems. I deal with that in other posts.
The important thing for this post is just how different social life is here. Living in America, you hear all the hot debate and intellectualism and think that you'll get even more in Israel. You get less, way less. Every time I hear of an Israel intellectual or academic (and they have a few of them) I'm sort of surprised because the average person seems to be completely incapable of objective or even rational thought or to have any interest in books or facts or different perspectives.
This is true of the religious and chiloni. I worked for a year at a company full of secular Israelis. There was one guy there with whom it was possible to conduct an intelligent conversation on Israeli politics and another with whom it was possible to discuss other topics. The rest were maniacs. As for the religious ones, we have a global problem of group think and emotionalism with religious Jews today. Maybe it's a bit worse in Israel, particularly when it comes to Israeli politics.
Yes, I'm talking about Jews. Shocking no? And even the American Jews either become that way after a time or arrived that way, being of a certain type that probably didn't fit so well in America.
Israel isn't more of anything. It's totally different. All prospective olim have to understand this before uprooting their lives.
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