Hey everyone. This morning we went to Ben Gurion University and met and talked with Guy Ben Porat. We learned how Amnon was interestingly Guy’s past commander in the army and was used to listening to Amnon. Now we know why he was actually willing to talk to us. He talked about interesting issues within Israel relating to Secular and Orthodox, usually Ultra Orthodox, Israelis. Before I talk about these issues, let me give you background on Guy Ben Porat aside from his relationship to Amnon.
He was born in Israel in 1967 and studied at Tel Aviv University and John Hopkins University. He is a secular Jew living in Lehavim, Israel, with his wife and two daughters. We learned that in Israel, secular Jews can be defined as liberal rather than just being non-religious. These two sides have had many conflicting beliefs. All secular Jews must serve in the army, while the government allows religious women to not go into the army, and religious men do not go while being in Yeshiva. This divide between obligations creates or enlarges the rift between these people. In Israel, people can’t be married without an Orthodox rabbi, making it so that non-Jews have to marry out of the country and secular Jews have to either concede to the Orthodox way of marriage or also marry out of the country. The government doesn’t consider everyone who in my eyes is a Jew, as, in fact, Jewish. They say that for that person to be a Jew, they need to convert or have a Jewish mother. So, people affected by the Pogroms, Holocaust, or other forms of anti-Semetism can’t escape this trouble and go to Israel through the law of return. The issues of army service and marriage are just 2 of the many problems afflicting Israel. Dr. Ben Porat was careful to show both sides of each issue he spoke about.