Really, can Israel survive without Judaism? In a story by the Canadian Jewish News, “Israel must embrace Judaism to survive: Nobel laureate”, Nobel Prize laureate Robert Aumann, left, warned last week that Jews in Israel may not survive as a nation unless they em-brace Jewish values.

Ah, Israel, I remember thee well. In case, you missed it, I posted previously about my first day in Israel. I loved Israel but I went there with the misguided notion that I was going to the most holy place on Earth. And in some ways, it was. It felt easier to be Jewish in Israel.

Still, the heightened tension between secular and religious Jews in Israel was oppressive like smog in the air that infected my lungs. I have fancy dreams of going back to Israel to learn. But I don’t look forward to the smog in that what would otherwise fresh and dry desert air.