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Saturday, July 18, 2020

Differences Between American Jews and Israeli Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                       
American Rabbis in Portland, Oregon USA

From left Emanuel Rose, Reform,Yonah Geller d: Novemer 15, 2007, Traditional/Orthodox and Joshua Stampfer d: 2019, Conservative, each from a different branch of Judaism, were the subjects of a television documentary, “The Three Rabbis,” on Portland’s Jewish community. Rose died Friday at age 88 in February 7, 2020.  Emanuel Rose was born in New York City’s borough of Queens on (Oct. 20, 1931-Feb 7,2020), to Abraham and Mary Rose. His father was a rabbi, part of a family lineage that now includes at least six generations of rabbis.
Judaism and being Jewish covers a wide avenue, just like Christianity covers many groups.  I see that the religion has its different lines between the two countries of Israel, the only Jewish State in the world with about 6 million Jews, and the United States, where at least 6 million Jews out of the 14 million in the world, live. Being Jewish covers more than just the religion you follow, but also includes culture and even a familial group you are part of.  
                                                         

Israel has 6 million Jews making up a population of over 8 million.  That's the amount we lost in WWII at the end of 1945.  

Its Jewish make up consists of being 22% Orthodox, which is a term meaning of what is the oldest form of belief, in trying to follow all our precepts of Judaism, and in that Moses had given us 613 commandments.  We do not have any religious police, and how we practice is an individual decision for all of us.  
Israel also has the Haradi (ultra orthodox) who make up 9%.  Another group is the Dati who are religious making up 13%, and mainly the non-Orthodox who make up 78% but are far more religious than American conservatives, simply because its so easy to be Jewish in israel.  Then another group are the Masorti (traditional Jews) of 29 % and the more secular group called the Hiloni who make up 49%. So about 4/10 of Israeli Jews, or 41%, who do not identify with any of these 3 stream of denominations of Judaism used in the USA of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform.   It's about 50% religious Jews and 50% not so religious Jews who make up our Jewish Israel.  

Hiloni Jews, meaning Secular or Mundane, " is the term used in Israel for non-religious Jews, some of whom identify with Jewish secularism and secular Jewish culture.  As citizens of Israel, hilonim generally speak Hebrew. Many hilonim observe national holidays, such as Israel's Independence Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day."  You will see that secularism is made up of Jews that were and are Zionists.  The events of their day in the 1800s caused them to become more involved in the need to establish their own country again.  Religion took a back seat compared to their situation of all the past centuries.    

What's special about the Hiloni is what is important to them.  "The concept of modern-day political Zionism, in itself, was founded largely upon secular beliefs and values. Theodor Herzl, founder of the modern Zionist movement, was an assimilated Austrian Jew. At first, most of those immigrating to Ottoman Palestine were Orthodox Jews who moved due to the holiness of the Land of Israel and their wish to be buried in Jerusalem (due to the belief that the Messiah will resurrect those interred in Jerusalem before the rest of the world). With the onset of numerous pogroms throughout Eastern Europe, some Jews moved to the Holy Land—"made aliyah"—citing security, freedom of religion, and strong Zionist affinities. During the first wave (1882–1903) of Zionist aliyah, and especially during the Second Aliyah (1904–1914), the Jewish population of Ottoman Palestine, consisting mainly of secular or non-traditional Jews, greatly increased. These immigrants and their offspring founded cities such as Tel Aviv and established kibbutzim inspired by socialist theory, which was not necessarily connected to Judaism as a religion or a set of values. As the number of new immigrants increased, so did the proportion of secular Jews. Up to the establishment of the State of Israel, the number of religious Jews was relatively minor.
                                                             
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad
(1902 Ukraine-1994 New York, New York)
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to many as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply as the Rebbe, was a Russian Empire-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the most recent rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century. 
The USA, on the other hand, have 10% being Orthodox.  They also have the Modern Orthodox who make up 3%.  Then they also have the Haredi who make up 6%, so together they constitute 19% Orthodox as well.  It has changed over the years from Orthodoxy to embrace the Conservative and Reform movements.  Israel has different lines,  but uses different names and meanings. 

The Reform movement came along in Germany first during the Napoleonic Emancipation days with the formation of small synagogues by laymen such as Israel Jacobson who shortened the service, introduced the organ to the services where no musical instrument was used other than the male Cantor who sang in Orthodox synagogues.  The rabbis were extreme in breaking away European Judaism of their day.  They threw in a complete severance from talmudic restrictions.  It was a radical change in the service, in which less Hebrew was used and German was used.
                                                       
Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise
1819-1900 , 
Isaac Mayer Wise, was an American Reform rabbi, editor, and author. At his death he was called "the foremost rabbi in America".
In the USA, Reform came to South Carolina in the early part of the 19th century with Temple Beth Elohim.   Then Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise founded the  UNION OF AMERICAN HEBREW CONGREGATIONS in 1873.  It declared that historic Judaism continuously adapted itself to its environment in order to strengthen its impact upon society.  Reform abandoned the doctrine that it is Jewish destiny to  be somehow taken to the Holy Land by the Messiah.  They gave up the idea of a personal Messiah and substituted the belief in a Messianic age.  Early Reform turned against Zionism. 
                                                     

I know for a fact that the Reform Temple, Temple Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon was reverting back and not so reformed in regards to Israel as it used to be with Rabbi Rose.  He was all for Israel and working very hard to defend her rights.  I worked with him in learning our history.  He gave us who were interested a list of books to read in preparation for debate purposes, and I read them all. I had taught Sunday School there after returning from Israel.   Beth Israel is a Reform congregation and Jewish synagogue in Portland, Oregon, United States. The congregation was founded in 1858, while Oregon was still a territory, and built its first synagogue in 1859.

Reform synagogues or Temples exist in 26 countries as of 1992, and I know personally of one's existence  in Israel.  In American it is now the largest trend with over 1,250,000 adherents.  The movement is affiliated with the WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM.    This is why the USA's Jewish Democrats might be a very large %. There are many Reform Jews who would be interested.
                                                     
Neveh Shalom, Portland, Oregon, Conservative
Solomon Schechter was a Moldavian-born American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of American Conservative Judaism.

USA's Conservative Movement was introduced by people like Solomon Schechter who was born to traditional Judaism of pre-World War I in eastern Europe.  They said that Judaism had to reckon with the reality of Jewish peoplehood as well as its individual aspects and it has supported Zionism.  It opposed extreme changes in traditional observances.  It permits certain modifications of halakhah, like the sitting of men and women together during worship.  Othodoxy separates men and women.  
                                                      
Races of Jews
I've heard of an Indian or 2 who were from mixed marriages
in 1800s in USA

Israel's Haredim have very similar religious beliefs and practice to the ultra-Orthodox Jews in the US.  Both groups are isolated from the rest of society in many ways.    
Haradi Judaism
Masai rabbi who made aliyah to Israel
after serving each year, orthodox 
Israel's Datim are much like Modern  Orthodox Jews in the US as both groups mainly follow Jewish law while also integrating with the modern world. It's made of all colors of Jews.     
                                                          
Only one Jew here, all are Israeli IDF
of different religious groups, Jew, Druze, Christian and Muslim
Israel's Masorti are like the Conservative movement in Israel.  Very few use this label and may also say they are members of the formal international movement known as Conservative Judaism, making up 2%.  They have a wide range of religious commitment but are more religiously engaged than the US Conservative Jews in some way and less in others.  For instance, US Conservatives are more likely than Israelis to say that religion is very important in their lives (43% vs 32Re%) but less likely to say they keep kosher at home (31% vs 86%.  It is easier to do so in Israel.  It's getting harder and harder in the US, and the prices of meat are much higher than non-kosher.  

In America, Reform Jews are less devout than Conservative Jews, but not as secular as Israel's Hilionim.  
Only 5% of Hiloinim identify with Reform Judaism.  Most Reform Jews in the US say they go to synagogue "a few times a year" or "seldom" 67%.  That would be for the high holidays.  One problem has been economics.  Synagogues required eventually that a person signs up to belong, and there were dues each year.  We don't pass any plate around.  The amount had been steep for dues.  That is all changing now.  Most are not expecting yearly dues, even Chabad, an Orthodox group, does not.  
                                                         
Ethiopian Jew of IDF
In Israel, the majority of Hilonim (60%) never attend synagogue, and nearly 8/10s (79%) say religion is "not too" or "not at all" important in their lives compared with only 43% of Reform Jews who say the same. 
 The Hilonim are more comparable to the 30% of US Jews who do not identify with any Jewish movement or denomination.  


Among these Jewish Americans, about 3/4 (74%) say religion is not important in their lives.  

Israel does have a lot of newer Russian immigrants who came without any background in religion, less in Judaism.  They were not allowed any religion in Russia.                                                                          
                           All saying prayers at Western Wall in Jerusalem.   
Don't be misled by the term "secular."  Jews all have one thing in common that keep us together.  We all believe in the concept of One G-d and not plural gods.We all believe in the need to have our own country.  We came from a single family in our history proven to be true by our DNA results.  No one would be living in Israel who didn't have a reason to be there regardless of the religious Jewish group they are a part of or not. We are the result of our Jewish culture and our religion or lack of. 
                                                            

Israeli Jews overall are more religious than US Jews mainly because Orthodox Jews make up a greater share of their population.  Remember, Israel is a Jewish state and there are 2 rabbis in charge of religious affairs such as marriage and death.  One doesn't really have a reform wedding in Israel.  Jews in the 2 countries have different political ideologies.  49% of American Jews are liberal while only 8% of Israeli Jews are on the left of the Israeli system.  In both Israel and the US, religious Jews tend to lean more to the right, while more secular Jews are centrist or liberal.  
                                                                                 
Ariel, area C, 25 miles east of Tel Aviv-Judea Samaria

Would you like to cut off Forest Grove from Oregon and say it's in Palestine? 
That's about how close Ariel is to Tel Aviv.  
Ontario, Oregon is on the border but their is no idahoan city nearby.  Boise is
56.4 miles away.  We used to drive that far to synagogue every Friday night, a good hour away.    
 Judea and Samaria are filling up with towns and cities made of more serious Jewish people, those that want to really practice it.  They have a love of the history from this land, and wish to be there as well.  There are many Jews who have become more interested in their religion than their parents were, and are learning more about it.  That's been going on since the 50s and maybe even sooner.  Judah, the area G-d said for our tribe to live in; Samaria: the entire northern region of the central highlands of Palestine with capitol from King Omri of the Northern Kingdom.  
                                                            
The establishment of Israel on May 14,1958 has made a change in more ways than geography.  It's changed Jews all over the world in some way, just as the Holocaust has done.                                   

                                         Brooklyn, NY Bar Mitzvah, 1951
                           
USA 1972-1980
          
Israel 1980-1985



















Dan Eskow, born and bar-mitzvahed in Brooklyn, made aliyah in 1980 and went from Conservative American to Doti Israeli.  To him that was Orthodox.  

That was happening to others as well. 

 He wore a kippa and said morning prayers.  Changes come in baby steps.  He had been a Jew that taught Hebrew studies to boys working on becoming bar-mitzvahed.  He had to learn Conversational Hebrew.  Actually, he even had to learn the Hebrew meaning of individual words in the Torah as well.  All American Jewish boys usually go through a bar mitzvah at age 13.  Some even go to Israel to have the ceremony.  
                                                         
1980 in Safed, Israel; ground apartment with bars on windows.
It came with these because of danger from terrorism.
We're waiting for our lift from America to arrive. 

We went to Israel as Democrats of Conservatism but
became Doti Jews wearing kippas and skirt, and were strong defenders
of Israel.   

The about 20% of Arabs who are full citizens of Israel are more religiously observant than Jews.  The two groups live apart as a rule, except in government housing I was living in, like  Safed, for instance.  So that religious intermarriage is largely isolated from one another socially and there is virtually no religious intermarriage in Israel.  One's friends remain in one's religious group.  An exception to this was a recent psychologist lady who went to Israel with her 2 children and was making friends with Arabs mostly, a Wendy Orange who wrote Coming Home to Jerusalem, 2000.  She went over with little background about Israel and did learn a lot. She had spent most of her time in Judea and Samaria and was not Orthodox, or religious at all.   I had the experience of living at the ground level of a high rise and one day a water pipe broke way above us, gushing water water into my closed front door.  I had an Arab and an Israeli Moroccan-born woman come to my rescue and the 3 of us were bailing out water in my apartment.  I loved both for their help, couldn't speak to either, never met them before and still remember them to this day. Luckily they could speak Hebrew to each other, better equipped than me, just learning Hebrew.  That was in Safed (Tzfat) 1981.                                                  
My parents, Morris and Millie Goldfoot
before 1934. 

                                                                               
  Jews in the USA have belonged to the Democrat Party since Franklin Delano Roosevelt days, contributing to him their ability to immigrate to the USA, though the door closed in 1924 and he was President from 1933 to 1945 when he died.  Jews coming over in a large scale came from 1900 onward.  The door closed as Americans complained that Jews might take their jobs.  The door closed for Jews in Medical schools with only a small % allowed in as Jews were capable and able to enter in larger numbers before .  Many able to pass the entry exams had to be turned down. "Although American Jews generally leaned Republican in the second half of the 19th century, the majority has voted Democratic or leftist since at least 1916, when they voted 55% for Woodrow Wilson. In 1940 and 1944, 90% of American Jews voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 75% voted for Harry S. Truman in 1948, despite both party platforms supporting the creation of a Jewish state in the latter two elections."

This carried over to the Obama election  In the 2008 presidential election, 78% of Jews voted for Barack Obama, who became the first African-American to be elected president. Polls indicate during this election, 83% of Jews voted for Obama compared to just 34% of Protestants and 47% of Catholics, though 67% of those identifying with another religion and 71% identifying with no religion also voted Obama. In the 2012 presidential election, 68% of Jews voted for Barack Obama. In the 2016 Election, 71% of Jews voted for Hillary Clinton. As Israel sees it, Obama has been a terrible president for Israel.  
                                                              

 Today many, and I believe a high % of Reform Jews belong to J Street, a group at odds with the first Jewish group, AIPAC.  J Street is at odds with Israel.  AIPAC backs Israel and speaks on their behalf.  For example:  In July 2012, J Street launched an ad campaign against two U.S. Representatives and Tea Party activists who opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, Joe Walsh (R-IL) and Allen West (R-FL).  In response, West said that "J Street's efforts to attack me only embolden my stand for our greatest ally and my spiritual home, the State of Israel." Walsh's chief of staff commented that "If J Street is attacking you, you know you're doing something right." Both representatives were defeated in the general election.
J Street has clashed with rival pro-Israel group StandWithUs, which claims that J Street is too close to funders and advisers who have "opposed Israel" and Arab governments perceived as "consistently hostile to Israel". In response, Jeremy Ben-Ami accused StandWithUs of smear tactics against J Street and having an "us versus them, good versus evil, black versus white" world view towards the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict."  One original leader was Soros.

Traditionally, The very Orthodox groups do not enter into politics at all and remain more secluded with their energy on their religion.  That's changing lately with some involved in the End Times period.  
                                                 
                                                     

                          Must post this.  Miss Israel 2013, Ethiopian heritage
Born 23 June 1991) is an Israeli model, television personality, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Israel 2013. She is the first Ethiopian Jew and black Israeli to win the contest. As Miss Israel, Aynaw represented Israel at the Miss Universe 2013 competition, although she did not place.
 have no idea which religious group she belongs to.  She's Jewish!  She is an Israeli!  
      

 https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2020/07/differences-between-american-jews-and.html
                            
 Resource: 
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/rabbi-emanuel-rose-religious-leader-and-social-justice-advocate-dies-at-88/article_fc1a448e-4b89-11ea-956a-af722ca7fca6.html
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/15/unlike-u-s-few-jews-in-israel-identify-as-reform-or-conservative/  Michael Lipka
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiloni
https://www.jta.org/2017/05/30/united-states/more-synagogues-are-getting-rid-of-their-mandatory-dues
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/08/key-findings-religion-politics-israel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews_in_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Street
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKNgxdtrSA J Street-Soros  notorious Gaza 54-

RJC: The Mystery of J Street - Solved

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