Economist special report: “Judaism and the Jews”
It’s a rare treat to get lavish treatment from such a nice “newspaper”, but I walked away disappointed. My letter to the editor:
As an Orthodox (and borderline haredi) Jew, I was excited to read your special report. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of your well-considered leader quickly gave way to disappointment. I can understand your favoring Jewish pluralism over Orthodoxy, much as I may disagree. But how could you write a 14-page report about Judaism, mention Orthodoxy dozens of times, yet only quote two Orthodox Jews - neither of them in Israel?
A couple of other points:
- This article that praises emerging Jewish pluralism while admitting to the decline of non-Orthodox movements is so annoyingly/hilariously/depressingly contradictory.
- “Jews and their religion have probably never been so secure.” That may be true, but that’s not saying much. Europe, past and present, provides plenty of proof for that.
The articles are mostly about the diaspora, because Judaism in Israel is taken for granted; It’s much more worthwhile to track trends chutz l’aretz.
But are you seriously complaining that orthodoxy was not given disproportionate representation in this piece? and when you all don’t have to serve in the IDF? Or do you think non-orthodox Jews can’t know anything about orthodoxy? I don’t understand.
The collection of pieces is really important, and not something that secular news sources often dedicate their time to.
