Papal Visit Purim Millennium Snow in Jer. In the next millennium, Israel's religious and secular will either learn to work together or live apart. A look at possible directions the conflict may take. Neither Minister Michael Melchior, responsible for issues related to Israeli society and Diaspora affairs and who presents the first scenario, or author Ze'ev Chafets, who presents the second, can say with any certainty what will be the nature of religious-secular relations in Israel in two decades' time.
FEW people seem to envision a true separation of synagogue and state along the American model.
After all, a country that defines itself as the Jewish state cannot divorce itself entirely from the religious implications of that calling. So to think that the religion of the Jewish nation will not continue to influence the state of the Jewish nation - it's not going to happen. HIS VIEW is not far in that respect from the scenario presented by Rabbi Avraham Ravitz of United Torah Judaism, who says that in 20 years, religious and secular will live in increasingly separate and rarely intersecting worlds, hopefully with mutual respect. Chafets, too, says that Orthodox and secular are likely to drift even further apart. It's very clear that the religious parties do not want a slightly more religious Israel.