A colleague told me a few weeks ago about how his youngest son doesn't want to give any land back to the Palestinians.
"God gave it to us so why should we give it back," the father told me, quoting his son's policy position. "This is what they teach him in kindergarten."
It's worth knowing that the father moved to Israel from the U.S. about five years ago and lives in Jerusalem. I'm not completely certain of his political views, but I'd peg him as a centrist, if not pragmatic leftist, who is perhaps not religious but does observe some Jewish customs at home.
A friend, let's call him Joe, recently told me of a trip he took to a European country with his wife and mother-in-law. Becuase the mother-in-law is an observant Jew, for the duration of the trip, Joe was obliged to eat in dairy restaurants only.
It should be noted that Joe, who immigrated to Israel from the U.S. about seven years ago, keeps a kosher home, but he occasionally enjoys swine and other traif delicacies when dining out.
The mother-in-law doesn't know about the flexible eating habits of her daughter and Joe, and when the issue was mentioned during the trip, she refused to discuss it.
Haaretz, the so-called "New York Times of Israel," carries a regular column on the weekly reading of the Torah. To my knowledge, this was instituted when the new editor, an observant Jew, who immigrated from Great Britain years ago, took the post.
Am I alone in my unease regarding these situations? I haven't been able to put my finger on it, so forgive me if I think out loud here.
Is the lessons being taught to my colleague's child so different from those given to Palestinian children regarding their claims to this land?
In any case, should our children be taught at such an age that God "gave" us this land? Is this what we truly want them to learn and to believe?
What if the New York Times had a regular column on the weekly reading in the New Testament? Such a move would probably be welcomed by a large segment of Bush's America, but what about Jewish Americans? What would it say about America?
Why do we, Jews in Israel, play by different rules when it comes to such matters? And why do Americans who immigrate to Israel, after enjoying the religious freedoms in their former country, so quickly abandon such principles here?
What does the religious guy heading Haaretz think about the role of a newspaper, albeit one in a Jewish country?
(I don't mention the Jerusalem Post because its line on state/religion is dictated largely by the target audience: Right-wing, usually religious, American Jews.)
Does the self-proclaimed Jewish intelligensia in Israel, i.e. those who read Haaretz, behave so differently in regard to religious issues than the Christian fundamentalists in the U.S.?
Why can't Joe tell his mother in law he eats swine on occasion? Or maybe the question should be why is his American mother-in-law so unwilling to discuss the issue?
(I want to make clear that I'm not blaming him or asking to behave any differently. I think Joe is in a situation not of his own making, but rather one that reflects our own inability to deal with these issues.)
Sorry, no answers here today.
