Due to Religious Differences

     Our class experience and reading so far has centered around Jerusalem and it' religious significance. However, after reading the introduction to The Sacred and Profane, I couldn't help but think of the discrepancy between my experience as an American/European Jew and the middle eastern Jewish experience. The greatest difference for me thus far has been the Holocaust. Obviously, genocide is a horrific experience, especially for those who had to bear witness to it. But my education as an American reformative Jew-by-choice has lead me through the painful narratives of several victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and I can't deny that learning and understanding such a profound historical and religious epoch has brought me closer to my faith and people. My initial knowledge of Judaism arose from Jewish summer camp and reading Holocaust literature in high school. The central novel I was encouraged to read during my conversion was Night by Elie Wiesel, which, for those of you who haven't read it, is a story of a young Romanian Jew who is captured by Nazis during WW2 and taken to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Within the narrative, Wiesel speaks of how G-d has died if he is living through such treachery: "How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces? Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar?"I have been taught that such a horrific tragedy was a true test from g-d; that Jews endured through this painful moment in history for the continuance of our faith despite all worldly measures. To me, the Holocaust was a "hierophany", as Eliade put it.
     I bring up the Holocaust and its painful history because of its importance in my Jewish education, and I am predicting that this won't be the case for Jews within Jerusalem and the rest of the middle east. I am not sure of this and am not critical of such circumstance if it is true, but I am stunned that there exists a truer closeness to God within the Jewish faith that I was not taught as an initial foundation of my faith as a convert. Perhaps this discrepancy is the root of tension within one faith; perhaps such internal discrepancies translates out to tension between faiths. I look forward to learning more about the pillars of the Jewish faith from a non-European perspective, in hopes of expanding my knowledge and my faith.