In this connection, has anyone seen the movie "A Price above Rubies," which is set in an Hasidic community in NYC. In my mind, the movie paints a pretty bleak picture of life in such a community if you are of an independent mind or a woman. Of course, if you are a believer, I imagine that the community offers you things not obtainable in the totally alienating culture of capitalism.
Michael Yates
Carrol Cox wrote:
> Lou,
>
> Just a footnote to your post on Jewish history. *Prior to* the
> establishment of the Israeli State Judaism had been one of the least
> offensive of all the world religions (though all of those, including
> Judaism and Islam were always more offensive than purely local religions
> --various animisms, Homeric Olympianism, etc). For one thing, as my Jewish
> office mate at the University of Michigan 40 years ago pointed out, the
> doctrine of immortality was not really native to Jewish religion, and in
> so far as it was was of late (probably post-biblical) origin. And once you
> pull the teeth of that "tedious doctrine of immortality" (Engels), you
> have in part neutralized the socially and politically oppressive grip of a
> religion.
>
> Carrol