Jewish Pluralism

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Diversity, in my mind, would be differing backgrounds, cultures, and experiences that produce a unique, mixed expression of ideas. The notion is not only dependent on the differences between people, but also the tolerance these people demonstrate; the tolerance allows the variations between each person to thrive, unencumbered. While the former exists within Judaism (varying cultures, skin colors, and traditions amongst the people who identify as “Jewish” will be discussed in detail at a later point in this essay), the latter, seemingly a “pluralism” of thought, is not as often encountered. The question as to whether or not tolerance is a Jewish value will be examined below. Do individual Jewish communities display higher levels of tolerance? …show more content…
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes,
No small people is more diverse, ethnically, culturally, attitudinally and religiously – and the more religious, the more diverse. There was hardly a Jewish settlement in the Middle Ages without its own minhagim and piyyutim. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, each Hassidic group and yeshiva had its own style, its own niggunim, its own derekh ha-limmud, its own role models, its own spiritual tonality. The way of Ger was not that of Chabad; that of Volozhyn not that of …show more content…
While today their status as halachic Jews is controversial, scholar Rabbi J. David Bleich states that, “Judaism is color blind; skin pigmentation is unknown as a halakhic concept (Bleich 48),” and explains that the true issue in determining their status as Jews is understanding and extrapolating upon Jewish identity. The differences in traditional practice of Sephardic/Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews are also very prominent. For instance, Sephardic Jews perform Selichot, a prayer said in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for the entire month of Elul, while Ashkenazi Jews say Selichot from the Sunday preceding Rosh Hashanah. Sephardic Jews will not eat meat that is not entirely glatt (that is, the lungs must be completely adhesion-free) and have an additional Kashrus certification called “Beit Yosef” for their meat, while Ashkenazi Jews are more lenient in what meat they will eat. The variation between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews is emblematic of the hugely differing customs of different Jews: each sect and culture has its own set of firmly-set traditions, and some strongly contradict each other. An example of this is hair-covering once a Jewish woman is married; Sephardic rabbi R’ Ovadiah Yosef forbade wigs because they look too similar to hair (Yabia Omer), while the Lubavitcher
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