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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 5