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From: adam@npois.UUCP (Adam V. Reed)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Scope of net.(religion).jewish
Message-ID: <390@npois.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Aug-85 19:44:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: npois.390
Posted: Thu Aug  1 19:44:47 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 02:08:26 EDT
Organization: ATTIS, Neptune, NJ
Lines: 28

sam@bu-cs.UUCP (Shelli Meyers) writes:

>You have mentioned that there are "non-religious" Jews, who still consider
>themselves Jews.  Perhaps this is so, but they are definitely a minority.
>And in that minority, probably only a tiny percentage reads this net.
>Why?  Because it is called net.RELIGION.jewish, not net.jewish.  Therefore
>we've got to assume some sort of religious concepts here.  We ought to
>discuss those religious differences, not the validity of individuals'
>beliefs themselves.

The above is factually wrong. Not just because there is no evidence for
the claim that non-religious Jews are a minority among the readers of
this newsgroup, but because, as one of the original founders of this
newsgroup, I can attest to the fact that it was intended as a forum for
discussion of everything Jewish, whether from a religious perspective or
a secular one. The fact that it is a subgroup of net.religion is a
historical accident. Initially, we requested "net.jewish", but several
news node administrators objected to having yet another top-level group,
and suggested net.religion.jewish, net.nlang.hebrew, or
net.roots.jewish. At the time, net.nlang was pretty much restricted to
linguistics, and net.roots to genealogy, leaving net.religion.jewish as
the least objectionable alternative. No restrictions were implied by
this choice. Jewish "theology" is a valid target for arguments from all
viewpoints, including those of Jewish atheists. Remember, it takes a Jew
to be an Apikoros. Personally, I would like to see more wide-ranging
explorations in this newsgroup. How about a discussion of the political
implications of Jewish ethics?
				Adam Reed (ihnp4!npois!adam)