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All Jews believe that your mother must be Jewish for you to be Jewish. There are a mixture of Jews in Israel, no matter if you are Orthodox, conservative or reform, Israel is all of our homeland. However the Orthodox Jews are often the ones making the descions about things such as this.
Orthodox jews are much like the Pharsee's in Jesuses time- they follow the letter of the law litterally. The follow 312 commandments, and are basically following the same religion that was followed in ancient times.
Conservative Jews are those that follow most of the laws, but are not as stringent about them.
A reform Jew is someone who has faith in the religion but doesn't necessarily follow the laws.
For instance, the mixing meat and milk law- an Orthodox Jew would have 2 kitchens. One for meat and one for everything else. A Conservative jew would just not eat them in the same meal, but would use the same kitchen. They may have seperate utensils, but not necessarily. A reform Jew would chow down on a cheesburger happily. Or the Sabbath, a reform jew may go to Temple, or they may not. Some will have Challa and light the sabath candles, some may not. Both the Orthodox and conservative jews will observe the sabbath, going to temple, lighting the sabbath lights, not using electricity or driving or doing much else, but the conservatives make exceptions for modern life. If they are in pain, they will take a pain killer, the orthodox would not. They may drive to temple, an orthodox would walk. They may read or play games or do other things, the orthodox would just pray.
An Orthodox temple, the women are seperated from the men, in a balcony above, and hidden by curtains. They are not allowed to read Torah or touch it or say prayers loud enough to be heard. Orthodox temples are also very noisy places, where people often just come to socialize, rather than honestly pray. They can be very disrespectfull. At a conservative temple, the women may be in the same room, and same floor, but often hidden behind a curtain. Again they may not pray loud enough to be heard, but they can touch the torah. But these are more respectfull. At a reform temple, both men and women can wear the tallit and read and touch the torah. They are in teh same room as men, and are on equal standing.
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