At a PresenTense event in Jerusalem last month we posed (on big posterboards) some key question for participants to answer (with stickies of course) over the course of the evening. We’ll be posting the Q’s and some of the answers here on Blogs of Zion:
What is the greatest challenge facing the Jewish People?
A few of the answers:
- “Hatred between different streams of Judaism.”
- “The mis-transmission of what Judaism has to offer, because a watered down Judaism is a stagnant Judaism”
- “Apathy”
- “Freedom: Why be Jewish?”
- “Lack of a perceivable and compelling reason to be Jewish”
- “A tendency to get stuck in old habits and a tendency to forget the lesson of the past.”
- “Acceptance in the Middle East”
- “Jewish Unity”
- “Self-Esteem”
Notice, that but for one, these are largely internal challenges–and that’s representative of the rest of the answers that were not posted. And no one said Iran.
We invite you to post or send in your own answer to the question.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I think that the “Acceptance in the Middle East” is an issue that is a great challenge to the Jews, to Israel, but I also believe that this challenge is becoming tired. Increasingly so I meet people from the Middle East who are not anti-Semitic and who tell me that in visiting them at home, I would not be judged or mistreated for being Jewish at all. Yes, they admit that I should not advertise my Jewish identity, but even so, nor should they advertise their Arabic identity in the USA in certain situations–anyone ever notice how racist people can be here?
That being said, I feel that this article makes some very interesting points, and while I cannot say that this is a blanket statement for the Middle East, certain initiatives that the Jews can take in working with several Arabic countries could help the Israeli reputation in other Middle Eastern nations that do not share these opinions:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1203019385683&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Maybe this inferiority complex or unfamiliarity with Middle Eastern hospitality among nations is left over from past generations? Perhaps the Saudi government does, in fact, want peace with Israel? The economic effects would be tremendous for both sides. I, personally, feel skeptical about the Saudi government for its violations on human rights, but then again this issue bothers me with Israeli policies as well. In working with the Saudis, perhaps Israel would gain some kudos from other nations that rely on the Saudis.
My understanding of Israeli relations with the Saudis is limited, as perhaps there is not much to work with. However, this is an interesting situation, and I do think that Israel may want to pay attention to it in order to work its way out of a crack in the Middle East and into a nation among its neighboring nations, “like a lion among lions” (Thanks, Ze’ev).