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Old 10-05-2010, 10:07 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Going all the way from ancient Israel during the Biblical age, to the present - would you consider Israel a Western culture?
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Old 10-06-2010, 12:49 AM
 
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Modern Israel is largely Western. Ancient Israel was a Middle Eastern culture. But your title is about Jewish people, while your actual question is about Israel; so that begins to look like apples and oranges.
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Old 10-06-2010, 12:58 AM
 
Location: 30-40°N 90-100°W
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Some are, some aren't. Israel contains a fair amount of Arabic Jews who may not fit as Western depending on how you place Arabs. I think "Mizrahi Jews" are sometimes Mideastern as well. At least some Jewish have lived in non-Western lands, like India or Central Asia, for many centuries.

Generally speaking Ashkenazi Jews are Western. Sephardic I think tend to be Westernized.
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Old 10-06-2010, 01:20 AM
 
Location: Macao
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Jewish people went pretty much everywhere. So you also have Ethiopian-Jews who look pretty much like Ethiopians, etc. Seems like in this era, there are large numbers who have been living in europe and north America, so take on much more european-looking characteristics. But, not everyone did that, you also had MANY Jewish who lived throughout the Middle East for generations as well before Israel existed as a state again. So they take on much stronger Middle Eastern features - which sometimes look a bit european in some ways anyways, a bit anyways, depending.

Literally, it seems like they come from the ends of the earth, so to speak. I've never been to Israel myself though, and many Jewish I have met have been in the States or from the States, who probably had their pre-North America origins in Europe and were dispersed because of Hitler, etc. Probably most people who use city-data, are most familiar with North American jewish people as well, who would have a higher chance of having europe as part of their jewish heritage than of being a jewish person whose family lived in iraq for a few centuries or whatsoever.
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Old 10-06-2010, 02:27 AM
 
Location: The Ranch in Olam Haba
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Since you are looking at such a long timeline, then according to the Jewish calender of 5771 years then the answer in no.
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Old 10-06-2010, 03:31 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R. View Post
Some are, some aren't. Israel contains a fair amount of Arabic Jews who may not fit as Western depending on how you place Arabs. I think "Mizrahi Jews" are sometimes Mideastern as well. At least some Jewish have lived in non-Western lands, like India or Central Asia, for many centuries.

Generally speaking Ashkenazi Jews are Western. Sephardic I think tend to be Westernized.
Sephardic Jews can be western and many have lived in western nations as long as Ashkenazi jews. Sephardic Jews have their origins in Spain but were driven out centuries ago. Many moved to the Netherlands, some to the US, England and other western nations. The first Jews that lived in the US were Sephardic Jews. Of course many also moved to North Africa as well as south Eastern Europe and turkey today.
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Old 10-06-2010, 04:38 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kevxu View Post
Modern Israel is largely Western. Ancient Israel was a Middle Eastern culture. But your title is about Jewish people, while your actual question is about Israel; so that begins to look like apples and oranges.
I agree with the above. Modern Israel is mainly a Western culture with a bit a of Middle Eastern culture mixed in.
As for the Jewish people who are spread all over the world it depends on what country they live in.
The Israeli people and the Jewish people are different culturally. Even in the USA expatriate Israelis are a separate group from American Jewish people. For example, for Israelis the Jewish religious holidays are national holidays that can be practiced in a secular manner. American Jews look at the Jewish holidays as a religious ones that identify them as a separate group of Americans.
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Old 10-07-2010, 11:33 AM
 
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Israel is a melting pot of many cultures. Jews are a diaspora and associate with both their Jewish heritage and whatever the country they are living in. So a Jew from the US would consider themselves American (western), but with Jewish heritage.

But even though Israel is a melting pot I still think it feels Middle Eastern, in the same way that Lebanon feels Middle Eastern while having many western characteristics.
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Old 10-07-2010, 11:52 AM
 
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Of course.
Middle Eastern people are also western in every right.
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Old 10-07-2010, 12:22 PM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
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I disagree. The Middle East is the orient of antiquity, the very model upon which the 'West' was conceptualized in contrast to the Middle East's 'East'.

However, Oriental religion (Christianity) is foundational to the definition of the West.
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