{"content":[{"text":"In Israeli law the obligation to report any case of parental abuse to the \n police is quite complicated and circumscribed and staff members are reluctant \n to report for fear of being victimized themselves. The crucial point of the \n articles is that where a society does not try to validate the cause of pain \n in a child, then that child is more likely to turn its anger against those he \n comes into contact with, whether at school, in the army, or later on in life. \n Important as law is in creating a climate of protection, the law is limited \n in that it is only rarely therapeutic. The need for therapy is not, as some \n see it, a way of being nice to criminals. It is rather a way of trying to \n channel the pain of those who actually have been abused and turn their \n capacities to more productive and positive directions. If one wishes to \n create a fair and just society, this surely must be a priority.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.054934,"width":0.856563,"height":0.20592500000000002}},{"text":"Thinking of the work that Yair puts into trying to change attitudes in \n Israeli society, I am struck by the contrast between Jewish life in Britain \n and Jewish life in Israel. In Britain, and in the European in general, Jews \n are part of a minority and usually feel little obligation to try to change \n society. They are concerned with their own minority problems–anti-Semitism, \n victimization and survival in a host society that they are part and yet not \n part of–whereas in Israel one is working to change a total society.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.277621,"width":0.834315,"height":0.11923700000000004}},{"text":"Israel is an incredibly complex society. No other can compare in the way it \n has tried to integrate such a high proportion of different cultures and \n backgrounds within such a small place and in such a short span of time, \n admittedly not always successfully. We in the Diaspora are so weighed down, \n even crippled by the constant criticism and condemnation of Israel as a Nazi \n State that we are in danger of forgetting what an amazing society it is. \n Israel contains a great deal of idealism and spiritually that coexists with \n its gross materialism, corruption, crime and abuse. Yet in Jewish terms it is \n so creative, so dynamic, that it puts our petty Diaspora communities to \n shame. It is no wonder that such a high proportion of our most talented end \n up going to Israel.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.41362,"width":0.856562,"height":0.1885880000000001}},{"text":"There’s a lot wrong with Israel, but it offers a challenge of trying to \n create a just society that is more readily achievable (and of course I do not \n claim that its anywhere near it yet either internally or externally) and one \n in which we have a very vested interest.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.61897,"width":0.8565630000000001,"height":0.06722300000000003}},{"text":"Now I come back to my starting point. To most uneducated, apathetic or \n alienated Jews, Judaism appears as a formidable legal system that all but \n excludes them. The emphasis is on legal and conformist structures rather than \n spiritual or shall we say therapeutic ones. I’m not saying that that is the \n reality. There is plenty of profound spirituality within the complexities of \n Orthodoxy and amazing human concern and care throughout the Jewish world. But \n the impression created by rabbinic decisions and the publicity they \n accumulate is that we are more interested in excluding than in including and \n welcoming. If that is the impression we are giving, then we are failing, and \n creating more alienation, and thereby more antagonists, than is healthy \n either for us or for them.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.702956,"width":0.8565630000000001,"height":0.18858699999999995}},{"text":"submit feedback","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.908306,"width":0.16686299999999998,"height":0.015209000000000028}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}