[NGFP-BookClub] organised religion

[Mafovries at aol.com]

 =

In einer eMail vom 02.03.2010 14:43:39 Westeurop=E4ische Normalzeit schreib=
t  =

barry at abrahamsons.co.uk:

barry at abrahamsons.co.uk


David is presently abroad and I - his father - will continue the discussion =

 on his behalf (if I may).
 =

Barry - your experience is similar to mine as we attended the same  jewish =

school. I had similar experiences being forced to go to synagogue 3 times  =
a =

day. None of my fellow sufferers and myself wanted to continue this during =

our  higher education days at university.
 =

That said - all of us have the ability to reverse our attitude and become  =

religious through knowledge gained. So - to a very large extend - the  =

non-religious headmaster enforcing religion down our throats must have had =
in  =

mind that we youngsters should have the means to contribute to Jewish socie=
ty. =

 Let=B4s face it - Jeshivahs work on similar principles. =

 =

So - for arguements sake - is it not possible to involve youth in Jewdaism  =

without force? Let=B4s consider the Russian contingents in the diasporah an=
d  =

Israel. I am head of a small jewish community north of Frankfurt and we =

consist  90% of Russians. Although non of these immigrants have any knowled=
ge =

of Jewdaism  they do consider our Synagogue as their "home" and we have =

regularly 40-50  attenders for ordinary Shabatim. =

 =

 =

The question that needs to be answered: =

By which means should we  offer Jewdaism in Israel:
Means1: by force or laws decided on by rabbis and not by democratic votes  =

or by Knesset
means 2: by democratic means probably resulting in reduced  Halacha Laws =

and a more secrealistic society
 =

I must agree that Religion should be kept out of governing a country. In a  =

democracy, any religion must be acceptable. Any religious leader will do  =

everything in their power to help tueir religion undemocratically.
 =

Food for thought: Israel is physically part of the Middle East and not  =

Europe. In that environment all countries are governed without democratic  =

ideals. So - Israel would fit that bill nicely and could try to integrate i=
n  =

that environment. That - however - can only materialise if the Arab countri=
es  =

would find a way to accept Israel. That is the true crunch for the future.
 =

Regards
 =

Manfred de Vries
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ngfp.org/pipermail/ngfp-bookclub/attachments/20100303/9b8=
68545/attachment.htm