I have some regards specially towards on what i see a Jewish society can become. I once saw a documentary about Israel's society and the 'prayers' and all the religion around it. And got a bit revolted, how can they imply judgment on the Palestinians and Iranians when their society is even more ruled by religion than the others? Maybe you could explain me about Israelite society and the influence of Judaism? Like why men may not work at all and pray whole life while women get to work their ass off, things like that. Maybe i was missinformed?
Well concerning Israel, in theory, the state was established as a Jewish homeland, and to be frank, if we want to set up a society where we practise our own faith, so be it. Israel doesn't condemn the Palestinians and Iran because they're Islamic societies, if a state is founded by Muslims, and they want society within the state to revolve around Islam, then so be it. The issue isn't religious, especially considering Islam and Judaism are actually very close belief-wise. The issue is survival. To Jews, and Israelis especially, the Palestinians and Iran want to wipe Israel, their nation, off the map. Wouldn't you be pissed at an other country if the destruction of Portugal was an official government position? The condemnation of the Palestinians and Iran, from the Jewish perspective at least, is born out of self-defence. Sort of like a "They want to wipe us out? Well we'll fight back" kind of mentality.
It's just incidental that the two states in question are Islamic in nature. Judaism isn't anti-Muslim, in fact Mohammad was one of the few non-Jews throughout history to treat the Jews as equals. If a state wants to be Islamic in nature, we couldn't care less. We only condemn the Palestinians and Iran because they threaten our survival as a people, at least from our perspective. Even then, we don't want to wipe them off the map, we just believe that if/when they attack we should be ready, and our ultimate wish is that they would just let us be.
If the Jews, and again, Israelis in particular, didn't view the Palestinians and Iran as a threat to our survival, we wouldn't have any problem with them. Likewise if the United States, for example, made it part of their foreign policy to wipe out Israel (almost happened too), then Israel would condemn the US. It's not because Judaism is anti-American, it's because in that scenario the US was threatening Israel's survival.
Again, I pose the question, wouldn't you condemn a country if they made the destruction of Portugal and the Portuguese people an official government policy? You wouldn't hate them because of their religion or how their society works, you simply hate them because they have openly advocated for the destruction of your people.
So I hope I answered your questions in regards to why Israel, the Palestinians, and Iran.
Now onto what I assume was the more important part of your question, Jewish society. Again, I'll say what I said at the start, in theory Israel was founded as a Jewish state, therefore shouldn't Jews be allowed to practise their culture there?
I do, however, agree with you 100% about your assessment of what you saw of Jewish society. What you saw were the Orthodox. Generally speaking there are three levels of Judaism, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
Orthodox Jews follow the Torah to the letter, if it says something in the Torah they do it. They're the ones you see with the long hair, wearing a prayer shawl outside of Temple, in all black, with the long beards.
Next you have the Conservative Jews. They're pretty normal, you probably couldn't pick one out of a crowd. They're Jews who don't believe in following the Torah to the letter, they interpret the Holy Text, and see how it applies to the modern world. Still, they go to Temple every Saturday morning, and the services are mostly in Hebrew.
Then you have the Reform. They follow the Torah even less then the Conservatives. They don't keep Kosher (Jewish dietary laws), they believe that a Jew should only follow the parts of the Torah that he or she feels at ease with. Services are usually held in the primary language (where I am that would be English, I would assume a Reform service in Portugal would be held mainly in Portuguese). Only a few passages, the really important ones, are read in Hebrew.
The portion of Jewish society you saw was the Orthodox fraction (both a small part of the worldwide and Israeli Jewish populations, actually). Like I said above, they follow the Torah to the letter, only utilizing modern innovations when necessary. This means that they live in a manner very much like ancient Jews. They pray all the time, and the women work most of the day. In actuality the Orthodox lifestyle contradicts what the Torah says, they're simply keeping alive a way of life that has existed for so long. They blindly read the Torah, never questioning it, which ironically goes against the Torah. The Torah teaches us to question our teachings to expand our mind, so by reading and following it blindly like the Orthodox do, they're defying the Torah.
My personal view of the Orthodox, and the society they live in, is similar to my view of anyone who takes their faith word by word. I believe they're short sited and maybe emotionally weak, using religion as a crutch.
I'm a Jew, yes, but I use my faith as simply something to guide me through life, not as something that controls me.
The documentary that you saw only focused on a small segment of the Jewish population. Most Jews don't prescribe to their outdated way of thinking, and their constant meddling in the Israeli government had halted peace talks more times then I care to count.
As to you being misinformed, it would depend, I guess. If they presented the Orthodox community as how Jews act all over the world, then yes, you were mislead. That actually provides an interesting opening for me to ask this question.
I've heard that Portugal is actually one of the more anti-Semitic places in the world? Is that true? I've never been there, and I'm not accusing you, I'm just telling you what I've been told. Is anti-Semitism prevalent in Portugal?
