The Role of Religion in the Jewish State

We met Sunday morning with Prof. Menachem Lorberbaum, senior lecturer at the Shalom Hartman Institute, an organization that self-describes as "a pluralistic research and leadership institute at the forefront of Jewish thought and education". Prof. Lorberbaum was raised Orthodox, but stated that praxis moved him into liberal theology. His purported topic was "The Role of Religion in the Jewish State: Can it be a Jewish State and a Democracy?", but his presentation raised more questions for me than it answered. He is certainly wrestling with the social and political ills that have occurred during the last 60 years and made many controversial comments such as: "what is experienced by Jews as a return home is experienced by the Palestinians as rape" and "Israel is a victim of its own success, including the economy, the army and the Six Day War as the undoing of everything". He also believed that religion must not be high-jacked by the extremist groups, as "religious people have the greatest capacity for introspection" and therefore "have more in common with each other than with secular society" especially regarding "the question of Divinity and how it operates in our lives". Clearly, a violent response in the name of religion corrupts this understanding. His hope is that religion can be a Balm rather than make Bombs, but the question is obviously still out.