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Secular Tel Avivians and childhood friends Lior, 25, and Noam, 25.
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Michal, a 24-year-old Israeli nutrition student, having fun in Tel Aviv.
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| By Jenna Bouchard March 8, 2007 |
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Too many Jews in one place cancel each other out. Or so it seems in the most homogeneously and densely Jewish population in the world. On the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, among the largely secular population, it seems that since everyone's Jewish, it's almost like no one is.
Strolling through the second largest city of the Holy Land provides nearly the same popular scenery as does New York. You've got your posh teens, frechot (hoochies) and the male equivalent (arsim), the mom's with strollers, joggers, business people - and some ultra-Orthodox Jews, dressed in black from head to toe, mixed among the rest. It's not even close to the religious traditional scenes of Jerusalem.
And among this modern population of high-tech industry, start-ups and Western media culture resides a generation who are by default Jewish, by practice secular.
"I feel more Jewish when I go abroad," says Michal, a down-to-earth 24-year-old Israeli nutrition student. Though she lives in Tel Aviv, she, like most post-army young Israelis, has spent much time traveling abroad in the U.S., South America and Europe.
"I was in the States for a few months and was so proud of being Jewish," she continues, "It was the first time."
In Israel, Michal went on to explain, the Jewish customs are so imbedded in the culture that you don't have to try to be Jewish. You just are. Abroad, if you don't make an effort, your Jewishness disappears.
For a country that receives so much support from the worldwide Jewish community, an emotion based solely on the religious commonality, it's interesting to observe that being Jewish alone doesn't create the same connection for many Israelis.
"In general, I don't really think that someone's Jewish identity makes him closer to me," stated Noam, an Israeli film student and aspiring director in Tel Aviv.
He continued, speaking of the Diaspora's default support for Israel, "The criticism about Israel is higher among Jews in Israel than Jews in the U.S. Maybe outside Jews see Israel as a pioneer for them, and that justifies what is done in its name."
One of the reasons for this apparent lack of connection to Judaism among young Israelis is the wide gap and continual conflict between the large secular population and the smaller, yet powerful, ultra-Orthodox religious community.
In Israel, for the most part, you belong to either one group or the other, and there's not much room for those in between despite the growing Reform community.
The conflict really rose to the spotlight during the strong ultra-Orthodox protest of last fall's gay pride parade, held in Jerusalem.
Aharon, living in congested central Tel Aviv and attending university in the fashionable Sheinkin area, voiced his distaste for the "Haredim," as the ultra-Orthodox are called in Hebrew.
"The Haredim take the best part of Judaism out, and turn it to something that it's not. That's how a lot of Jews start to develop dislike for the religion."
Michal expressed similar aversion, saying, "I wish being Jewish here [in Israel] wasn't as related to the 'Religious.'"
But despite this apparent lack of religious connection, most agreed that it was not only important, but necessary, to have a Jewish state.
"It's important because it's the only Jewish state -- Jews don't have another place," stated first-generation Israeli Lior, 25, son of Argentinean immigrants. "This is the only place in the world that the county will accept you for being Jewish regardless of your color or the county you came from -- They'll accept you for being Jewish."
Aharon agreed, saying that "after 2000 years of wars, and especially after the Holocaust, the importance of having a Jewish state is infinitely magnified." |
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