"Christian" Skating Time and Israeli Dancing

[Mark Graber]

I'm not sure about this for several reasons.  First, at least as of 20
years ago, a good deal of the music played in the typical Israel dance
was religious.  Dodi Li is both a dance and a Hebrew prayer.  Second,  I
think it is going to be very hard to draw a very sharp line between
Israel national culture and the Jewish religion, given that Israel
claims to be a Jewish state (and insists on a religious conversion for
those not deemed Jewish by the religious leadership).  There is a lot
more to be said on this subject.  Thus, a great many people claim to be
non-religious Jews (can one be a non-religious Christian or a
non-religious Hindu--Jacobsohn might suggest the latter is puzzling
given the lack of an official Hindu doctrine).  Still, I think I will
stand by my basic point that with both Christian skating time and
Israeli folk dancing, there is a mix of secular and religious elements
that is practically impossible to disentangle.

Mark A. Graber (whose parents met Israel folk dancing and met his
spouse Israeli folk dancing!)

>>> paul-finkelman at utulsa.edu 07/03/06 12:11 PM >>>
Mark:  An Israeli folk dance is the folk dance of a national culture. 

It is not a religious dance.  That is the whole point!

Mark Graber wrote:

>May I suggest that this thread might benefit from Gary Jacobsohn's
>wonderful analysis of Hindutva in his THE WHEEL OF THE LAW: INDIA'S
>SECULARISM IN COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT.  As Professor
>Jacobsohn notes, Hindutva can be understood both as a culture and a
>religion, there not being a very sharp difference.  My sense is the
same
>is true for Christianity (certainly true for Judaism--witness Israeli
>folk dance).  If this is the case, then both the claims that this is
>simply secular or purely religious need to be modified.  The more
>crucial issue is how to First Amendment issues play out when the
>religious issues canno tbe disentangled from secular issues.
>
>Mark A. Graber
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