chaim
Member
LOL, nope I won't hate you. Actually, I find it usually is the other way around. You'd actually be surprised how welcoming Orthodox Jews usually are.
I'm not surprised your experiences in your Reform temple are different. My experiences with liberal religion (I was raised as a Unitarian with a non-religious Unitarian-Jewish mother, I attended a Quaker high school, I have had many Reform and Conservative Jewish friends and family) is that (surprise surprise) it tends to attract liberals. Religious and secular values strongly inform each other and can't usually be separated. Thus, conservatives seem more likely to be attracted to more conservative religions or to no religion at all. People who are attracted to the value systems of the more liberal religions tend to be liberal. If you are born into them they tend to spread liberal values (I remember in both Unitarian churches and Reform synagogues I've attended in the past where liberal political action and religion were closely intertwined and confused by many as one and the same).
In fact, this is probably where the idea that most American Jews are liberal and anti-gun comes from. Until recently most American Jews were members of the Reform or Conservative movements. Today, while Reform and Conservative are the largest movements, I think the majority are unaffiliated. Orthodox Judaism is on the rise with large birth rates, low drop out rates, large numbers of baal teshuva (returnees to the faith) and fairly large numbers of converts. Many of the unaffiliated Jews and most Orthodox Jews are slowly starting to turn to more conservative politics. Even some Conservative Jews (though few Reform) seem to be making the change and are at least no longer knee jerk lefty Democrats. My prediction is that within a generation at most our politics will be more balanced and reflect those of the middle class population as a whole.
