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| Photo: © Stan Banos |
I'm hardly the expert on anything Judaic, period. But having grown up in NY, I knew enough about the belief system (at least as it pertains to particular sects of Hasidism), that would make such a scene (as pictured above) possible. Still, the seeming incongruity of it all remained a bit of a shock back on an early summer day in 2019 as I stumbled upon it by sheer circumstance. These days, that shock factor increases... exponentially! I don't exactly know how or to what extent that particular belief (that a Jewish state cannot officially exist until the coming of the Messiah*) has shifted under present circumstances (if at all), but I did see a report that for the first time, a certain percentage of Hasidic males have, in fact, volunteered for military duty in Israel (the latter being exempt from mandatory military service).
*Again, the person above does not support a free Palestine because of some enlightened humane or humanistic world view, his belief is completely based on strict religious dogma independent of any belief(s) based on the personal dignity of freedom loving people. Just as evangelical Christians that fervently support Israel do so not to further Judeo-Christian brotherhood and cooperation, but to bring about the culmination of their ultra conservative belief system concerning Christ's second coming which has them raptured into paradise while everyone else (incl Jews) meet their dastardly, well deserved demise...
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