
Translator: Davood Salehan
Source: rasekhoon.net
Source: rasekhoon.net
Mordechai believes that every nation has a role in the history as the Jews had and they were like other and were not distinct from any other nations. He answers the critics, who say: abandoning the belief of being the chosen nation of the Jews will cause the Jews to lose will for life, in such a response that Judaism should not carry the idea that is inconsistent with the principles of democracy. The cult also like other sects believes that one Jew is a person who is born from a Jewish mother, but they also know having a Jewish father as a factor of being a Jew. The sect is not recognized by religious institutions in Israel like tow former sects, but they have synagogues and extensive activities and numerous social and cultural institutions in Israel; because the sect emerged in the United States most of its followers few which are just tens of thousands are living in the United States, and very few of them live in Israel. Orthodox Jews of the United States also do not recognize the cult as a Jewish sect and they have given numerous verdicts in this regard. But on the subject of this cult towards Zionism although founder of this sect believes in Zionism, he does not believe in political Zionism. He believes that political Zionism only sought to establish a state, and knows it as a goal and he has abandoned Jewish minorities, but he does not tolerate diversity. His believes in spiritual or cultural Zionism. In this regard, it is said that Mordecai Qablan was affected by a Jewish scholar called Ahadha Aam. Mordecai calls for a strong relationship between Israeli Jews and Jewish communities outside of Israel, and knows each of the two sides needing each other. He says: Israel without Jews of different parts of the world is like a body without the spirit and the scattered Jews in the world without Israel are like the spirit without a flesh. He insists on teaching the Hebrew language and literature. Sect reconstruction of Judaism criticizes some Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.
Ethiopian Jews (Flasha)
Of the groups that are not recognized by the Department of rabbis in Israel is Ethiopian Jews (Flasha). Flasha in Joghri language that is one of the local languages of Ethiopia means "exiled immigrant". They do not like this name and choose name (Bita Israel) (Israeli resident). Israel transferred the groups, in eighties and the early nineties, in the two famous rendition program, and since the beginning of their transfer to Israel, the chief of rabbis doubts that they are Jewish due to their isolation from Jewish culture and society over the centuries, and their ignorance of the Talmud, and even accuracy of their marriage and divorce face some skepticism. That is why head of the rabbis asked them to convert to Orthodox Jewish religion so to be recognized as Jewish people in future; even Ethiopian male immigrants were asked to do circumcision and this is while they were circumcised in childhood, but presidency of Rabbis believes that their circumcision was not religious. Doing some religious rituals is also asked. Many of them did not agree to do these demands and consider them as an insult and humiliation, as they believe that they have been Jewish from past old Jewish and them being Jewish is even more accurate than many other communities. They objected to these requests and fromed protests and went on strike in front of the headquarters of Prime Minister and head of rabbis for a few days. Some of them even committed suicide. In response to the many problems created for this group by head of rabbis and they doubt them in being Jewish, many of them joined Jewish reformists and conservative sects, and some of them became rabbi in the two sects; although the two cults are not recognized by the official religious institutions in Israel. The reason of the groups' conversion and joining to the mentioned groups is ease of conversion to Judaism in their beliefs. Ethiopian Jewish immigrants complained about Israeli dealings with them, and they know it racism. Israelis call Ethiopian immigrants as Cauchy. Cauchy is a Hebrew word by meaning "black", and this is humiliating for them. In a survey in year 2007 in Israel, 43 percent of Israelis have answered no to the question whether they like to marry with Ethiopian immigrants, and have been opposed to their children's marriage with them as well. Many Israelis opposed transfer policy o them to Israel in protest have launched protests. In the army they are also ill-treated and some of them have committed suicide due to this. They are unhappy from discriminatory policies towards themselves on the issue of housing and education and also complain about the high percentage of unemployment among themselves. In the survey it is clear that 60 percent of them are poor and this is why some youth are in search of their African identity with the Caribbean identity rather than Israel. They staged large protests after they found that in the nineties that the Israeli Health Ministry throws away their donated blood because of the risk of acquiring HIV, and only after the authorities had promised to form a committee to follow up their issue, they ended it. The Ethiopian immigrants are now more than one hundred thousand people. Since about a year ago, Israel embarked to transfer a group of Ethiopian Christians called (Flasha Murra). They claimed that they were indeed Jewish and their ancestors have been converted to Christianity by Christian missionaries. The number of them is about thirty thousand who are likely to be gradually transferred to Israel. The Jewish Agency, the American Jewish Organizations and Christian Zionist organizations help them to be transferred. Israeli officials say that the group is not transferred according to Israel's Law of Return, but they are transferred into Israel according to the law of bringing together disparate elements.
Jesuit Jews
Christian Jews or Jesuit Jews are other unknown groups in Israel. Name of this group is not only due to Jews being Christian as Orthodox Jews believe in Christ, too, but their Christ is Jewish, while Jesuit Jews believe in Jesus Christ (Yeshua) and wait for his rise again, and However, they are Jews and because they have faith in Jesus, they are considered to be outside the Jewish faith from the perspective of religious institutions in Israel and while they do the rituals based on their Jewish religious practices based, they are non-Jews. Christian Jews believe that their sec is not a new emerging cult and their roots can be traced back to the disciples of Jesus who were Jews and followed Jewish laws and at the same time they believed in the mission of Jesus and since then of their presence is not interrupted. The cult was not active in recent centuries, but it has been active since the beginning of the twentieth century. The number of members of this sect gets to hundreds of thousands of people that are scattered in many countries of the world, but most of them are now living in the United States. In Israel, tens of thousands of members of this sect are living and have churches and certain cultural and social institutions for themselves, but earlier, their activities were secret due to fear from head of rabbis and Orthodox Jews because they believed that the Judeo-Christian sect is closer to Christianity than Judaism and what they do in Israel is evangelism, therefore organizations have been established through which they can protect Orthodox Jewish identity and struggle with missionary activity to track and control their activities. Although the cult is not recognized in Israel, and the cult is strongly Zionist and believe that immigration to Israel and settlement in it is their duty and it is imperative which should not be considered small or refused it; therefore, their number is growing in Israel.
Israeli Hebrews
Of Non-official religious groups is a group of African Americans who call themselves Israeli Hebrews. The cult is new emerging and it has been established in the second half of the twentieth century. Leader and one of its founders is Ben Aami who went to Israel with a group of his followers at the end of the sixties. On arrival, they asked the government to allow them to come under the Law of Return. The government allowed them temporary entry and residence and they asked President of the Rabbis to be recognized as a religious denomination, but he rejected their request and asked them to do religious rituals according to the Orthodox religion so that they will have citizenship. This sect considered the question as an insult and in sense of uncertainty in them being Jewish and rejected it and they are still remained on their beliefs. The cult only believes in the first five books of the Old Testament as the scriptures and disbelief in the Talmud that is second source of Jewish law. The difference of this sect with the Orthodox is that they know Jesus and the Messiah son of Mary as a prophet and praise him and his words and they do not celebrate many important festivals like Passover and know it is as historical event in the past and it is not necessity to be celebrated.
They do not hold some famous Jewish rituals either. The members of this cult believe in thier leader (Ben Aami), not only as leader, but as their prophet and believe that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the first Jews were blacks. Members of the sect now only have the right to permanent residence in Israel; but probably they will have nationality in the near future. State has declared that certain towns are granted for the cult, but so far the Department of Jewish rabbis has not recognized them and even did not allow them to bury their corpses in the Jewish cemetery.
Russian Jews
Russian Jews are large groups that immigrated to Israel at the end of the twentieth century, and with them the other former Soviet republics, both groups were transferred to Israel. Later it became clear that many of them are not Jewish. Rabbis' president believes that three hundred thousand of them are non-Jews, and some statistics show that 50 percent of them were non-Jews.
It became clear that many of them were Christian and had only familiarity with Jewish religion, because the right to return also let them back. The majority of these immigrants do not believe in the Jewish law, and some of them see conditions of converting to Orthodox beyond their endurance and power and refuse to accept it. Some of these migrants are followers of Christian-Jewish cult mentioned earlier, as this denomination has been active in Russia and countries of Central Asia. They do not believe in the Orthodox faith because believe that they are true Jews and their cults is savor sect.
Many Russian immigrants do not believe in Jewish law and consider them Jewish in two aspects: one in comparison with Palestinian Arabs and the second in ID. Since the beginning of their immigration to Israel many actions were held by them in opposition to Jewish law, such as opening shops on Saturday and selling pork and nos getting fast in Kippur day which is the most sacred day of the Jews. These things provoked anger of Orthodox Jews.
Although the Jewish religious institutions in Israel will not recognize these groups, the state of Israel encourage them to come to Israel and give them citizenship and helps them have full citizenship rights to fill the Occupied Palestinian Territory so that in the future there won't be any room for its true owners who are the Arabs.
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