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A.B. Yehoshua<\/p><\/div>\n
Yesterday\u2019s appearance of Yehoshua on the symposium Fonda Abi Shefara named \u201cIs the Zionist revolution continuing?\u201d was very emotional. \u201cFrom the view point of identity, Israelis are the absolute Jews,\u201d says the writer, \u201cin other words, those empty spaces that exist in defining Jewishness are filled only while living in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that is surrounding me is Jewish,\u201d continues Yehoshua, \u201cjust like everything American surrounds the Americans. You can\u2019t read about the treasures from books. The treasures are first most identified while working and in everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the words of literature, Jewishness is seen every minute of every day in the life of an Israeli citizen, in the language that they speak, how they act and even how they carry their weapons.<\/p>\n
Criticizing the \u201cpart-Jews\u201d of the diaspora, Yehoshua noted, \u201cJewishness is not what the rabbis talk about in their Saturday sermons. The Jewish treasures are found in Israel every day, when facing the war of good versus evil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike your comfortable \u2018Judaism day of rest,\u2019\u201d, he continued with a chuckle, \u201cThis is a realistic thing and not something imaginary.\u201d Remembering a phrase he used in his speech in 2006, he underlined that he had been misunderstood: \u201cI didn\u2019t use the terms \u2018good Jew\u2019 and \u2018bad Jew\u2019. Jews of the diaspora lead an active Jewish lifestyle, often visiting Israel and sending their kids to expensive Jewish schools. You do a lot. However, my life is completely Jewish. To the extent that, those, leading an active Jewish lifestyle being in the diaspora, for the most part are Jewish in comparison to their fellow assimilation, but in the same manor are inferior to ordinary Israelis.<\/p>\n
In addition, Yehoshua brought up some historical arguments to support his position: \u201cThe first word being used to describe our nation in the Torah was \u2018Israel\u2019 not \u2018Jew\u2019. The word \u2018Jew\u2019 was first mentioned in the book of Esther, referring to the period when most of the nation was found in the diaspora. The country was always called \u2018Israel\u2019 and not \u2018Judean\u2019 or \u2018Zion\u2019. To be a Jew, means that you were born from a Jewish mother or you identify yourself in the quality of a Jew. Both of these definitions have nothing to do with religious characteristics. If you indeed want to be Jewish, move to Israel,\u201d concluded Yehoshua.<\/p>\n
The professor of a Jewish University, Rachel Elior, a scholar of philosophy and Jewish mysticism, did not agree with the writer: \u201call Jews are equal members of the symbolical community,\u201d she says, \u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018part-Jew\u2019. Any Jew is a complete Jew, and it doesn’t matter where he lives. And it is also not possible to talk about the Jews that are \u2018first type\u2019 and the \u2018second type of Jews\u2019. All Jews are equally responsible before the past, present and future. You are known as a good Jew until you stop identifying yourself as such.\u201d<\/p>\n