"A Diaspora Character if ever there was one"

[eumelia]

Via constintina:

The origins of Spock as the "Other", the "Outsider" and the Vulcan salute:

As an agnosto-atheist, the whole idea of the essence of god thing doesn't really do it for me.
However, I come from a family of Kohanim (the Priest tribe of the Jewish people) and the one time a year I do attend shul (synagogue) it's to hear and sing "Kol Nidrei" and to see my father and brother bless the congregation.
The shul my family attends isn't Orthodox, it's very egalitarian(1) - women wear kippah and tallitot, etc.

Everything Leonard Nimoy said there, I find it rings so true to the way I perceive Judaism, though not the kind that I ever experienced, nor do I think will I ever, considering where I am from and the fact that one must believe.
Which, as I've mentioned, I do not.
Like Roddenberry, I'd consider myself a Humanist, despite the problematic history of that word, but I'm a bit too Jewish for that so I like this(2) more than anything else.

(1)Though not enough for daughters of Kohanim to be able to go up to the Bimah and bless the congregation.
(2)Humanistic Judaism

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Judaism in Israel is stunted because, as you say, there is no separation of religion and government and because of the need for stability in government, it is only a "certain kind" of Judaism that is considered "real".

I blame Ben-Gurion for that.

Regardless, Israel is a Zionist state, and thus needs to have a diaspora it can say isn't real Jewry, the "real" Jews are the pioneers living in Israel. Zionism hasn't updated itself in 60 years.

That's why when I look at Judaism, I try very hard not to look at it in it's Israeli form, as it is an intolerable and intolerant denomination.
Hence being an agnosto-atheist and pretty much anti-religion in my outlook on life - very likely were I to live a long while outside of Israel I'd find myself a Jewish community in which to participate seeing as I do have a cultural tie to that if not anything else.