Jews as a people or a religion

Submitted by sara (United States), Oct 17, 2010 at 19:54

Anon,

First, I find the term 'secular Jew' to be a bit oxymoronic. Like a woman who recently called herself a 'Jewish Atheist". The lack of acknowledgment of religion and religious practices within the Jewish identity is a rich topic for discussion.

That said, I do not pass judgement on how any Jew chooses to interpret or express their Jewishness, as one of a tiny minority in the world. There are fewer and fewer self identified Jews, and perhaps that is just the way of evolution, we have been fighting against the odds to maintain any presence at all for centuries.

So I would base my judgement of Jewish identity on the person's support of Israel simply because in my mind, not to support Israel diminishes the whole idea of Jewishness and Judaism. If not us, who? (to bastardize the famous quote)

I guess I took issue with your comment:

"However the Fox news and Tea party crowd who support Israel do so mostly for religious reasons and this is not healthy in the long run. Similarly liberals who oppose Israel because conventional liberal thought tends to side with the underdog is a misguided view.

In my view, there is so little support for Israel in the world that I welcome any source, regardless of their views or beliefs, as little as I may agree with them. If they want to believe in rapture, and it makes them a 50 million strong pro Israel bloc, let them believe whatever they want. No harm to Israel whatsoever. Adversity makes for strange bedfellows... I will take them any day over the liberal 'justice seeking' Jews who identify more with the Pals due to the 'civil and human rights issues' and see Israel as 'oppressors'. Since this is a prevalent opinion in my area, I feel more at home with the evangelicals. Of course I did not join a church, but I admire their support and good works. Try watching one of their TV shows and see how they fundraise for Israel and help Israeli families and immigration.

And your comment:

Let us all support Israel for the right reasons but not because some 2000 yr old fairy tale book tells us so."

Israel will take any and all support she can get. Bottom line. There are too many anti-Israel voices out there as it is to reject any friendly ones, so their 'fairytale beliefs' are simply irrelevant.

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