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!"