Allow me to get a bit political for a change.
In Israel, there’s a law against proselytizing. If you’d like to convert someone’s religion, you can’t do that publicly – for example, walking door to door, or putting leaflets in mailboxes, or placing signs or whatever. Unless, of course, you’re trying to make them Jewish. That’s but one of the many, many ways in which religion is a very real part of Israeli government; for example, Aviv and I had to marry our respective spouses out of Israel, because we didn’t want to have a religious Jewish wedding – and that’s the only kind of wedding you’re allowed to have in Israel, if you’re Jewish (non-jews have no such restrictions). All four of us are Jewish by our culture heritage alone, if at all, and yet, the government declares us Jewish, and tells us what we can and can’t do, according to that definition.
Even worse – people who actually care about their Jewishness, but their specific beliefs are anything other than orthodox, can’t marry in Israel according to their rites. The Israeli government considers orthodox Judaism as the only “true” one. The majority of jews in the world today are reformists, which means most jews alive today can’t get married as jews in Israel. What.
Separation of church and state – it’s not just a good idea, it should be the law!
Edit: I’ve been told in the comments below that I’m probably wrong about the no-proselytizing law (you can do it, there are some minor restrictions); also, Muslims and Christians marriages are also restricted by law in unreasonable ways, not just Jewish ones. Also I’ve been told I should write Jews, but I don’t like that, so I won’t be doing that.
