Prof discusses religion, culture in Israel

After a half-century of surviving wars, waves of immigrants and the difficulties of making the desert bloom, Israel is finally stopping to blow out 50 birthday candles. And in recognition of Israel's 50 years as a country, Paula Hyman, a visiting professor in Jewish Studies, held an intimate talk and luncheon with a small audience yesterday at Hillel. Though the discussion was originally labeled "Israel at 50: Facing the Future," Hyman informally renamed it "Israel at 50: After the Dream" before beginning his address. "One of my Israeli friends said to me, 'You know, we are living in Israel after the [Zionist] dream,' and it really struck me," Hyman recalled. She continued by explaining that Jews must look through Zionism's rose-colored dreams and see Israel as it actually is, "a real place that has real problems." While acknowledging Israel's successes in the last half century, Hyman arranged the bulk of her talk around a discussion of such concerns, which she organized into two categories: political problems and religious problems. She tackled the political issues first, focusing on the "complex" situation of Arabs in Israel. "We must face the facts. Arabs are treated as second-class citizens, there there is significant anti-Arab racism and government decisions are often made to invest in Jewish communities and not in Arab," Hyman noted. In one example, she explained, "In anticipation of a coming war with Iraq, gas masks have been distributed to Jews. However, they have not been given out to Israeli Arabs." Hyman noted that this kind of government-sanctioned discrimination is hard for Americans to envision. But she stressed that "democracy is not always accepted or desired in Israel. It is an import and did not develop on its own under Jewish culture." Her foray into Israeli culture soon shifted into a discussion of its religious problems. "Israel is the only place in the world I feel discriminated against as a Jew," she said, noting that the Orthodox religious establishment can often be very hostile to Conservatives, like herself, or Reform Jews. "When I was living in Israel and attending a Conservative [synagogue], I actually got an official government letter before Rosh Hashanah telling me that I was 'not fulfilling my religious obligations' and my rabbis were 'not real rabbis,' but just trying to 'fool me,' " she remembered. More generally, she bemoaned "the increasing lack of civil discourse" on religious issues in Israel, which has gained publicity recently with battles over conversion. However, in spite of all the religious and political problems she outlined, Hyman still described Israel as her "second home," noting that she is "on the verge of her 25th trip to Israel." She explained her personal way of handling her problems with Israel and its policies and encouraged the audience to follow her example. "Don't create a fantasy of Israel," she said. "Go, see it for itself and then make your own individual connections."