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Religion in Israel
Pinhas Lapide, deputy edi
tor of publications in the Is
rael Government Press Office
in Jerusalem, is a Canadian
by birth and an Israeli by
choice; a master of eight lang
uages and ■ an author of es
teem.
His latest literary work ‘‘The
Vicar—and the Truth” is a re
appraisal of Pope Pius+Xll. It
has been publishd in 16 Euro
pean journals, including the
Vatican's Osservatore Rom
ano.
Lapide is very much con
cerned with strengthening the
inter-faith movement and for
two years was coordinator for
Israel's Pilgrimage Committee.
He has also published “A Pil
grim's Guide to Israel,” and
“An Israeli’s Introduction to
Christianity," which is basic
reading at seminars for Israel’s
tourist guides.
Lapide was a founder-mem
ber of the first American Kib
butz in the Mountains of Gil-
boa. He fought u’ith Wavell’s
Eighth Army in the North
African, Maltese and Italian
campaigns. While serving in
Italy he “discovered" a
group of peasant converts to
Judaism and has been their
advisor for more than 20 years.
Their story was told by
Lapide in "The Prophet of San
Nicardo," which has been pub
lished in eight languages and
This comprehensive presentation on one of the most
controversial questions associated with the Jewish
State was delivered in Atlanta last fall at the opening
convocation of the Jewish Institute of Jewish Studies,
sponsored by the Atlanta Bureau of Jewish Education.
PINHAS LAPIDE
earned a literary award.
Lapide, a grduate of the
Hebrew University, has served
abroad in the diplomatic serv
ice and is presently Deputy
Editor of Publications in the
Israel Government Press Of
fice in Jerusalem.
One of Lapide’s books,
“Cuba Between Eagle and
Bear,” is the only Israel-
authored book on this subject
which is obligatory reading in
the Political Science Depart
ment at the Hebrew Univer
sity.
L think we Jews are the only
people on earth to become a
nation before we had a land.
As a matter of fact I don’t think
that even blood-ties were de
cisive with our peoplehood and
that fact accounts probably for
the absurdity that we survived
as a nation, the loss of our land
for nineteen centuries. *
Going one step further, I
think the State of Israel is the
only state in the world today
which was based on faith and
idealism flying into the face of
economics, of strategy and poli
tics. In other words, if we be
came a state at all in ’48 and
survived until today and keep
on prospering, this in itself up
sets a galaxy of isms and pseu
do-theories of political science
and international relations.
Perhaps these two salient facts
give religion in Israel a unique
role of a special significance. It
is that reason, I think, which
makes the visitor to Israel or
the six-day Pilgrim, end his
visit with one of two contradic
tory conclusions.
Israel is a theocracy, many
American pastors and priests
conclude, with far too much
church interference in stately
affairs and state interference in
matters of faith and religion.
“Israel is a country without
God” say others, where atheism
is gradually taking over and
where fewer and fewer Jews
care one hoot about the religion
by PINHAS LAPIDE
of their ancestors. I have a
sneaking suspicion, my friends,
that both of these conclusions
are right and both are wrong
at the same time.
Let me begin with the charge
of theocracy. It has two roots.
One in diaspora Jewish history
and one in recent Turkish his
tory in Palestine. The diaspora
history you know full well, but
perhaps it’s worth recalling in
two or three words. For us
Jews throughout the Ghetto
centuries, that Book of Books
has pinch hit for land, for a
flag, for a national anthem, for
a president; in fact, for all the
attributes of peoplehood and
sovereignty. We had a book be
cause that’s the only thing you
could take with you when we
were chased out by the Pog-
romchiken, be they Russians or
inquisitors, or Hitlerites.
But that book grew to be so
important and stood for so
much as the centuries rolled
by, that our folk-heroes became
rabbis not fighters nor poets or
writers. That anybody who
wanted to change one title or
comma in that book was not
only committing heresy, but
high treason at the same time.
Spinoza is one case but we had
others. You couldn’t change
that book because it stood for
so much. It symbolized so many
things to a landless, policeless,
armyless and harassed nation,
that to shake or interpret anew
one sentence in the book was
The Southern Israelite
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