Diaspora Modern Orthodoxy and Israeli Religious Zionism: Similarities, Differences, Opportunities, and Challenges, with Shayna Goldberg (191)

9 snips

Jan 22, 2024

In this episode, the speaker discusses the commonalities and gaps between Jews worldwide and Israelis during the war in Israel. They explore the similarities and differences between the Modern Orthodox world outside of Israel and the Dati Leumi community in Israel. The speakers also discuss raising children in Israel versus outside of Israel and the pros and cons associated with each. They emphasize the importance of understanding differences within the community, explore the distinctions between the T'lume and Modern Orthodox worlds, and delves into the differences between the datilumi and harda communities. They also touch on creating an identity for children that embraces cultural diversity.

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INSIGHT

Dati vs. Orthodox

"Dati" means religious, focusing on a connection with God and spirituality.
This differs from "Orthodox," which emphasizes adherence to rules and practices.

INSIGHT

Israel-Diaspora Connection

The war in Israel highlights both commonalities and gaps between Israeli and Diaspora Jews.
Experientially, the gap is wide due to differing realities, but emotionally, ties are stronger.

ANECDOTE

Hidden American

Scott Kahn's daughter, Tali, attended Shayna Goldberg's class at Migdal Oz but hid her American identity.
Tali's English fluency was only revealed at a grandparents' event.

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The war in Israel, which is now well over one hundred days old, has in some ways highlighted the commonalities between all Jews across the world, no matter where they live, and in other ways demonstrated the gaps that continue to exist between an Israeli public that is dealing with the reality of war on their doorsteps, and a non-Israel Jewish world which, despite its emotional investment in Israel, obviously is not experiencing war in the same way that Israelis do.

The highlighting of these similarities and differences is at the forefront of the Jewish conversation today, so it seemed appropos to discuss one of the most important areas of both overlap and divergence: namely, the broadly defined Modern Orthodox world that exists outside of Israel, and the Dati Leumi world in Israel - that is, the community that defines itself as National Religious.

Shayna Goldberg has been on the Orthodox Conundrum before, and her insights into tricky subjects like this are always nuanced and welcome. For that reason, Scott was honored to have her back on the podcast to talk about the definitions of the words Modern, Orthodox, Dati, and Leumi, and the various ways that these communities are similar and different. They also talked about differences in the way that kids are raised in Israel and outside of Israel, both at home and at school, and some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with each.

The insights that Shayna brings to the table will hopefully spark important conversations about how best to raise our children - and how best to live our lives - by assimilating the best from each world into our lives, while avoiding some of the pitfalls that are part of them, as well.

You can read two articles that Shayna wrote about raising Israeli kids here and here.

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Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com