 |
Ze'ev Orenstein is a member of the Moledet Central Committee, and serves as Programming Coordinator for Yavneh Olami, a Religious Zionist student organization. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Ma'aleh Adumim, and finds himself taking an active role in the compelling drama that is the life of .
|
|
|
|
By Ze'ev Orenstein
December 23, 2005
If the values that parents pass on to their children are an accurate indication of the values of a particular people, culture & society, then there is cause for concern in the Jewish State (courtesy of Yediot Achronot):
"I want to be like big people," announced six-year-old Omri, resting at the bar of the Laser Club in Tel Aviv. ?Adults go to dance at nightclubs and now I do, too. It's great =- instead of dancing to (silly children's songs) we dance to real music," he said as he swallowed the rest of an ice slushy...
For NIS 20 (USD 4.35) per adult and NIS 30 (USD 6.25) per child (including a slushy and a glow-in-the-dark bracelet,) parents and children get the chance to boogie until eight o?clock. The party, run by a Yeladisco, or children's disco, includes two performers to show the new recruits how to get down...
"The parents will experience a different kind of quality time with their children and the children will get to dance in a genuine nightclub. "Everything here is focused on strengthening the family bond".
The music is mainly of Israeli hip-hop and trance, just like a regular nightclub.
I dance here the same way I dance without the children, I drink a little, get into the mood. The truth, what?s wrong with starting the week this way?"
Isn't it too young to start the whole club scene at age six?
"Not at all. What?s wrong with dancing with your mother? What?s wrong with trance music? If it's fun for parents, then it's also fun for their children."
The existential threat that trance culture poses to the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State is addressed in an insightful essay entitled The 52nd Anniversary of the Creation of the State of Israel: Israeli Society in a State of Trance - By Julian Schvindlerman:
To understand the overwhelmingly favorable reception which trance enjoys in Israel, we must delve a bit further into the nature of the two major currents shaping Israeli society at the moment: post-modernism, with its nihilism and perpetual emptiness, and post-Zionism, a homegrown variant of the former. Post-Zionism is progressively de-Judaizing Israel.
The children of post-modernism no longer believe in the dream of forging a better society, nor are they overly enchanted with the gains of "progress". Their attitude is indifferent. Hedonism is given first place, and ego-gratification dominates all other areas.
There is really no need to be amazed at the demoralization of Israel's youth, particularly when its own self-appointed intellectual role models seem committed to destroying the trust which young people formerly placed in their own institutions. The central message being purveyed: Zionism is unjust. Obviously, Israeli youth will lose their ideological bearings if their elders are hell-bent on erasing the Jewish uniqueness in return for an abstract universalism.
Using the slogans of democracy and universalism, the post-Zionist movement is robbing the Jewish people of its greatest treasure: self-confidence. It is going to take more than a cocktail of drugs and psychedelic music to reinvigorate the faith in ourselves that we have lost.
Let's now return to the questions raised in the original article: What's the big deal about trance music? What's wrong with mothers and their children going clubbing together -- the mothers sipping their alcoholic drinks and dancing with abandon, while their kids slurp their slushies at the bar, or try their hand at getting down on the dance floor with mom?
Is it any wonder that parents in Israel are passing on the empty values of the trance ideology on to their children when:
* They have given up their belief in the right of the Jewish people to a Jewish State;
* Their lives are driven, first and foremost, by a desire to fulfill their own self-interests and desires;
* They, themselves, are seeking to escape from the challenges inherent in being a member of the Jewish People and living in the Jewish State;
* They have been inundated by the Israeli media, Supreme Court, politicians and education system with the idea that the State of Israel was born in sin, and that we are occupiers and thieves.
The only cure for those infected by the trance ideology is to give them a sense of Jewish pride - both in the Jewish People & the Jewish State - to provide them with a sense of purpose and meaning - recognition of the glorious history of the Jewish People, and the majestic destiny that awaits us and which can only be actualized in the Land of Israel.
Hopefully, it's not too late.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
