Charles Murphy,
135 Ludford Road,
Dundrum,
Dublin16. 014409885/0863310420.
To the Editor,
Your contributor, Jonathan O'Brien, gave an interesting review (17 Oct) of RTE Radio's 'The Keeper of the Faith,' and
mentioned the Jewish girl who fears being ostracized by her co-religionists should she marry outside her faith.
While we in this part of the world could regard such strict exclusivity as, today, being rather quaint, unfortunately the
effects of the Israeli version have proved lethal to the indigenous Muslim and Christain people of Palestine.
This exclusivity in Israel has spawned Jewish extremist groups like Gush Emunim, whose goal, according to Jewish historian
Norton Mezvinsky, "is to build a sacred society whose nuclei are the Jewish settlements in the Occupied territories."
Also the late Israeli scholar Israel Shahak has written that, while struggle against antisemitism should never cease, there
is also a need for a struggle against what he describes as "Jewish chauvinism and exclusivism" and also that there is a need
for a "critique of classical Judaism".
Yours faithfully,
Chas Murphy.