A very thoughtful analysis and one that I never hear spoken of in such honest terms by Jewish friends. I have many Jewish friends (no Orthodox) and I enjoy their company greatly. At the same time, when together with a gathering of Jews, I can't but feel excluded. I'm not a Member of the Tribe, and there is an understanding amongst my Jewish friends that I am somehow "less" than they are. This "God's Chosen People" attitude has been the great strength and the great weakness of the Jewish people. Since they aren't going to Heaven, they better make this life a good one, work hard, get educated, a good career, a Jewish spouse and a big family. At the same time, this exclusive, elitist attitude has made Jews the envy and the enemy of many of the host populations they have lived among... and, in tough times, chaos ensues.
Israel is the answer. That said, in my many travels the Israelis are the people, and the Jews, that I have enjoyed least. Exclusivity and introversion rises to a fevered pitch. When spending time with Israelis I have been ignored, after a few niceties in English, Hebrew is employed, and I'm left alone at the table, the only gentile seated with 10 Israelis. Isn't this sad? In so many countries I've been greeted with open arms, treated as an equal, broken bread and shared meals. Yes, I am a Christian, and maybe I will go to Heaven, but I treat each and every living human as my equal, my peer. Is it so much to ask the Jews to step out of the dogma of their religion and join the rest of the human race, in humanity, with their feet firmly planted on the ground?
A very thoughtful analysis and one that I never hear spoken of in such honest terms by Jewish friends. I have many Jewish friends (no Orthodox) and I enjoy their company greatly. At the same time, when together with a gathering of Jews, I can't but feel excluded. I'm not a Member of the Tribe, and there is an understanding amongst my Jewish friends that I am somehow "less" than they are. This "God's Chosen People" attitude has been the great strength and the great weakness of the Jewish people. Since they aren't going to Heaven, they better make this life a good one, work hard, get educated, a good career, a Jewish spouse and a big family. At the same time, this exclusive, elitist attitude has made Jews the envy and the enemy of many of the host populations they have lived among... and, in tough times, chaos ensues.
Israel is the answer. That said, in my many travels the Israelis are the people, and the Jews, that I have enjoyed least. Exclusivity and introversion rises to a fevered pitch. When spending time with Israelis I have been ignored, after a few niceties in English, Hebrew is employed, and I'm left alone at the table, the only gentile seated with 10 Israelis. Isn't this sad? In so many countries I've been greeted with open arms, treated as an equal, broken bread and shared meals. Yes, I am a Christian, and maybe I will go to Heaven, but I treat each and every living human as my equal, my peer. Is it so much to ask the Jews to step out of the dogma of their religion and join the rest of the human race, in humanity, with their feet firmly planted on the ground?