Jerusalem Report logo small (credit: JPOST STAFF)
Jerusalem Report logo small (credit: JPOST STAFF)
In recent years, I have been saddened by the growing extremism of so-called “Religious Zionists” in Israel who have become increasingly unethical in their behavior toward other Jews and non-Jews whom they don’t regard as fully human. They have attacked and vandalized churches and mosques and have even killed an innocent Palestinian family by burning them to death, all in the name of their distorted views of Judaism, which they apparently have learned in various yeshivot in Israel and especially in the West Bank.

In contrast, there are large numbers of Modern Orthodox Jews who live both exemplary observant and ethical lives in Israel. But I fear that their voices are drowned out by the fanatics, perhaps because their extremist ideas have become too attractive to the cynical media in Israel, which promote them by their constant coverage of these outrageous individuals (much the same as the way the media brought Trump to power in America). In so doing, they lend their hands to besmirch the authentic teachings and values of Judaism.

An excellent book about ethical values at the heart of Judaism

In the light of these problems, I was happy to receive an excellent book recently by Modern Orthodox Jewish scholar and interfaith activist Eugene Korn, who grew up in America and lived there for most of his life, and now lives in Jerusalem. Korn has been thinking, writing and speaking about the ethical values that he effectively argues are at the heart of authentic Judaism for a long time. This new book of essays, To Be a Holy People, is both a summary of his thinking about these values and a call for reclaiming the essence of Judaism from the intolerant Jews who have become not only xenophobic but also violent.
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