WHO HAS THE CHUTSPAH TO
WRITE PAPERS FOR 'SECULAR JEWS'?
OR
WE HOPE YOU ARE GLAD WE HAVE!

Background facts.
As a small team of people who have great interest in People and Jews especially, we have been glad that we have been able to have contact with Israelis over the last 25 years

In fact we have had a life long interest in Jewish people, because of the stories we read about them from childhood. Perhaps some of this was sparked by a study of our family history which included a fascinating story of the family of our great, great grandmother who was a Jewess called Leah in England in the 1800's when her youngest son immigrated to New Zealand.

We also learnt of the history of the British involvement with helping Jews in Jerusalem from the early 1800's, right through to the ANZAC forces from Australia and New Zealand helping to free much of present day 'Israel' (and especially Jerusalem) from the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1917 - 18.

Later of course the world focus increased as Israel became a Nation State in 1948, then built a wonderfully viable Country, inspite of 6 wars and the Intefada's of the 80's and even in 2000. We were especially interested in this.

Visits and other contacts.
All this was added to by the opportunity to visit Israel, (about 12 visits between three of us since 1992) when we actually lived there for a combined total of about 3.5 years, and best of all, we were able to make some Jewish friends in fact they were mainly non-religious, very nice people! [Of Course!]

In N.Z. we joined a club to offer free hospitality to young Israel backpackers who travelled through our beautiful country. This gave us some fascinating chances to learn about their families, background events in their lives, and their hopes, dreams and philosophies of life. Like millions of people in the world who somehow thought all Jews were 'Religious' we soon learnt that most of our contacts both in Israel and our country were not religious at all, (usually) but were very open to discussion and a range of ideas, especially 'New Age' or secular humanism.

Our philosophy of life.
Having grown up in a small, democratic Country, with an indigenous race and many new immigrants, and with a range of life experiences behind us we are very keen to have an open mind to all people, but our education and those same life experiences made us value TRUTH above all things. For us there can be "no love without truth". Dishonesty, first and foremost within your own 'heart and mind' is a tragedy. If you can't trust yourself ~ who can you trust?

So we like to believe from all we have heard and read - especially from our research about beliefs in Israel and among Jewish People, that MOST Jewish people do value TRUTH very highly! We do too, so you will 'get the picture' of what we believe clearly from the articles in the web site: 'Hatikvah for Secular Jews.'

Our background education.
This was based very firmly in the whole of the teachings of the Tanakh. In fact you could say the contributors of this web site have had their lives enormously impacted by the Tanakh. Sometime maybe the writer for the site could share those experiences. She is a mother of a grown son and daughter, and has a wide range of life experiences, including being a qualified nurse and mid-wife. However others in the team are much younger!

One of the team has a masters degree, a post graduate diploma and a bachelors degree - all in Environmental Science. One worked for our main Television Company for 12 + years. A Jewish man in the U.S. who assisted with the articles has a B.A. and was happy to help as a layman Teacher. A Jewess friend has helped a lot, with her knowledge of history and Hebrew. We were grateful that another man, who had prepared the list of Scriptures in Hebrew and English, also pictures of space on his web site, who is associated with us, let us use that excellent material.

Contact us.
So we trust you will take advantage of our offers to get in touch with us through email, with any queries, comments or constructive criticisms. Above all we want to see Israel and all Jews have a very BRIGHT future! Even from 2009, when this web site was launched. We hope to do a second section, 'Part 2' at a suitable time in the future, partly depending on any feed-back we get from 'Part One'.

In the meantime, please "read and enjoy!"