Israel and the "sleepy hollow" down under

jyk,down under commenting to mentalblog.com: Israel has surpassed America as a centre for Jewish scholarship

There is no argument that modern secular Zionism was a revolt against traditional Judaism. Yes, there was a deliberate attempt to disengage from the traditional religious expression of Jewish identity & develop an alternative Jewish identity, based on either Jewish culture or language or nationalism etc..

This was already taking place in Europe with the spread of Jewish emancipation & the rise of the Haskala movement. I don't need to give you a history lesson, its all pretty basic & obvious. The question that we as religious Jews have to ask, is how to respond to the social & intellectual challenges created by this "disengagement".

This was the same question confronting the leaders of traditional Judaism in Europe in each country, thought obviously the circumstances are different when determining how to respond to a new movement compared to after "the horse has bolted" so to speak.

It is this question, in the Israeli experience, & the responses in Israel already were taking shape in Europe in the 19th century, that needs to be carefully considered. Various responses emerged, but I have always subscribed to the view that the religious community needed to engage the secular Jew in a positive manner, certainly the current generation that ought to be considered "tinokos shnishba" & not confront them in a hostile manner.

This was certainly the view of the Rebbe, particularly if you compare the tone of his language & attitude towards Israel to the fierce anti-Zionist rhetoric of the Friediker Rebbe & the Rebbe Rashab. It was also the view of Rav Kook as I pointed out in my earlier comment.

Someone suggested to me once that the solution to all of Israel's internal problems was putting a little bit of valium in their water system. I once met a few Israeli backpackers living in what we call the far North Queensland. Beautiful beaches, warm weather. They spent a large part of their time surfing the beaches on the Sunshine Coast. These were not ex-army travelers but Israeli's, who having traveled to Australia after the army, come back regularly to do a bit of surfing.

I actually invited them to our holiday house for Shabbos & they came. The classic comment they made was that Australia is such a great country that no one knows the name of our Prime-Minister. Somewhat of an exaggeration, but nonetheless the comment captured the main difference between their Israeli experience, where everybody is absorbed & passionate about politics & here, where there is a degree of apathy regarding politics & people would rather focus their lives on surfing & enjoying the "good life". I think we are the only country where there is a law that you must vote. If not, only a small percentage of the population would be bothered to vote.

menatlblog.com Australian geo stats in the last six days: