Judaism is not based on the Bible - Israeli rabbis destroy traditional Biblical Jews

I once had a young Jewish student in class who got a question wrong on a quiz, and he objected. The question was something like "The book upon which Orthodox Judaism is based: ________". He put "Torah", but the correct answer was "Talmud". At the time, I explained the answer to him by way of the example of the Karaites.

The Karaites were (and are) an ancient sect of Jews who based their religion directly on the Old Testament. They did not recognize the innovations of the Pharisee rabbis, which were eventually codified into the Talmud. [Jesus appears to have Karaite sympathies, in the way he condemned the Pharisees and their rabbinical innovations. ] For their part, the Orthodox rabbis, who based their religion on the laws of the Talmud, condemned the Karaites as heretics, and labeled them "not Jews".

It is a rather remarkable mental gymnastic to contemplate, but it is a fact:
--although the Talmud is supposedly rooted in the Torah, and
--Orthodox Jews continued to venerate the Torah as a sacred work in their religious services,
--anyone who bases their religion on the Bible is considered NOT-JEWISH.

Cultural Genocide in Modern Israel

These facts are highlighted in a story from Israel today, about Ethiopian Jews who moved to Israel, only to have the Orthodox Jew establishment wipe out their religious traditions, which are all based on the Torah/Old Testament.

Says one leader of the African Jews: "We kept this tradition for more than 2,500 years," Kess Semai said. "Our community won't allow in the span of 30 years for this tradition to be erased completely." (http://news.yahoo.com/israel-seeks-end-ancient-african-jewish-custom-070250470.html)

As the article describes them, basically modern-day Karaites:
"Descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Dan, according to Jewish lore, Ethiopian Jews spent millennia isolated from the rest of the Jewish world. In most Jewish communities, the priesthood of the Bible was replaced by rabbis who emphasized text study and prayer. Ethiopia's Jewish kessoch continued the traditions of Biblical-era priests, sacrificing animals and collecting the first fruits of the harvest."

Orthodox Jewish - and Israeli - intolerance

Truly, Orthodox Jews have got to be considered one of the most intolerant religious groups on the planet. At first, following tradition for dealing with Karaites, they didn't even recognize the Ethiopians as Jews, forcing them to undergo the standard conversion to Judaism. Even then the Orthodox establishment refused them access to their kosher slaughterhouses or government sponsorship and privileges. Decades later, they recognized their religious leaders, but only under a "once and done" exemption, a grandfather clause for that one generation that will not extend to the next generation. They still don't recognize their marriage ceremonies.

Just imagine if America were run in the same way: imagine something like a Protestant Minister National Board, for example, refusing to ordain or recognize the weddings done by any rival Christian organizations, telling them they have to stamp out their millennial-old religious traditions, clothes, and teachings, that their Christianity will only count if they dress like mainline Protestant ministers and graduate from mainline Protestant seminaries!

Overcoming religious double-standards

It really does boggle the mind, but in Israel, that is just the way it is. Their cultural imperialism is subtly transfered into the American press, which seems to always affirm the primacy and hegemony of the Orthodox definition of Judaism.

It takes a conscious effort to step back and recognize that the Orthodox definition does not have to be recognized as normative, and to apply the normal rules for the respect for diversity that we apply naturally to every other religious group.