{"id":210,"date":"2007-01-02T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-02T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html"},"modified":"2007-01-02T13:44:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-02T13:44:00","slug":"new-year-for-religious-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Year for Religious Extremism?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vast majority of American Jews would take no offense were I to take this opportunity to wish them a “Happy New Year<\/em>. ” Although the new Jewish year of 5767 began several months ago with Rosh Hashanah<\/a>, the Gregorian calendar used throughout the Western world is ours as well. As Americans, the rhythms of this calendar affect our lives\u2013often more so than the Jewish calendar\u2013and we can certainly join in recognizing the passing of an old year and hope for more peace, compassion, and love in 2007 than we witnessed in the year that has just passed.<\/p>\n

Then there are those segments of the Jewish world that seek to lock out any acknowledgment of the secular world, to insulate themselves from any influences of the modern world\u2013and their campaign is on the rise. Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews<\/a> make up only 10 percent of Israel\u2019s Jewish population, and yet in recent years they have been gaining in political strength and been increasingly vocal about and effective at forcing their religious and cultural norms on the rest of the Israeli population.<\/p>\n

We remember what happened in early November when a planned gay pride march was cancelled<\/a> under increasing threats of violence from Jerusalem\u2019s Haredi community, although the proposed route of the peaceful march went nowhere near ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. More recently, Haredim have been flexing their new-found muscle to campaign against other aspects of non-ultra religious culture they find objectionable, threatening drivers of city buses that don\u2019t separate men and women<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n

In addition, Haredi Jews are also considering a boycott of the Israeli airline El Al<\/a>\u2013which has maintained a practice of not scheduling flights on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath)\u2013because El Al had made a one-time decision to allow a few flights to depart on the Sabbath to help Israeli travelers who were stranded in U.S. airports. And Mevakshei Derech, a Reform synagogue in Jerusalem, has been the target of vandals multiple times<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n

Usually, we associate these types of threats and attempts to force specific religious norms onto others with the Taliban in Afghanistan or modesty patrols in Iran, but not with Jews. So the rise of Jewish religious extremists\u2013and the violence that has been accompanying it\u2013is a disturbing new trend.<\/p>\n

This attempt to shut out the modern world\u2013by force if necessary\u2013is the type of close-minded rejectionism that would refuse to acknowledge that much of the world has welcomed in a new year. But then again, for religious extremists everywhere, there is little use for anything new<\/em>, and the hope and freedom it might bring.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Grossman: Shun the Haters<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Rabbi Eliyahu Stern: Grasp Orthodoxy’s Appeal<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vast majority of American Jews would take no offense were I to take this opportunity to wish them a “Happy New Year. ” Although the new Jewish year of 5767 began several months ago with Rosh Hashanah, the Gregorian calendar used throughout the Western world is ours as well. As Americans, the rhythms of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA New Year for Religious Extremism? - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Year for Religious Extremism? - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The vast majority of American Jews would take no offense were I to take this opportunity to wish them a “Happy New Year. ” Although the new Jewish year of 5767 began several months ago with Rosh Hashanah, the Gregorian calendar used throughout the Western world is ours as well. As Americans, the rhythms of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-01-02T13:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Joshua Waxman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A New Year for Religious Extremism? - Virtual Talmud","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A New Year for Religious Extremism? - Virtual Talmud","og_description":"The vast majority of American Jews would take no offense were I to take this opportunity to wish them a “Happy New Year. ” Although the new Jewish year of 5767 began several months ago with Rosh Hashanah, the Gregorian calendar used throughout the Western world is ours as well. As Americans, the rhythms of…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html","og_site_name":"Virtual Talmud","article_published_time":"2007-01-02T13:44:00+00:00","author":"Rabbi Joshua Waxman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html","name":"A New Year for Religious Extremism? - Virtual Talmud","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-01-02T13:44:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-01-02T13:44:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c907457be70b05b78f556cde42041f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/01\/new-year-for-religious-extremism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A New Year for Religious Extremism?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/","name":"Virtual Talmud","description":"Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, where politics and pop culture meet 3,000 years of Jewish wisdom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c907457be70b05b78f556cde42041f","name":"Rabbi Joshua Waxman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ea\/6eaad0ba16ec89046c9580c3b08d2e4cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ea\/6eaad0ba16ec89046c9580c3b08d2e4cx96.jpg","caption":"Rabbi Joshua Waxman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/author\/jwaxman"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}