Are there sectors under Judaism that hate each others?

Question

I mean, Christians have Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants... etc., and each one says they are right and the others are lost. Same like Muslims who have Sunni, Shiites, Bahaai... etc., and they might even kill each others! Also Indians have Hindu, Sikh, and a lot... and they also kill each others.
Are there different sectors under the Jewish religion? Do they hate each others? I never heard of something like that anyway, I like how the Jews help each others, so I want to know if there is something I don't know about.

Answer 1

Actually there are different sects of Judaism, and at times they do not get along. It is even more complicated in Israel where you enter the political realm, but first I'll address the religious sects.

The main sects are reform, conservative, and orthodix. I don't have the time to explain the history of each, but they have varying degrees of importance that they place on the talmud (Jewish book of rules). Generally these three groups get along together fairly well. The orthodix are closer to the conservatives then the reforms, and vice versa.

There is also a group known as Chassids. They are like the jewish version of protestants...and began in Poland in the 1700's (I might have my dates a little off). They tend to be more fundamentalist....and place more emphasis on the kabbalah (one of the three elements to Judaaism, and the least understood). They tend to be more judgemental of other Jews. They also opposed the initial formation of Israel because the prophet has not returned. They are the ones you think of when you imagine the hats, long side burns....dark suits. There is conflict between the Chassids and other groups of jews. They tend to be more judgemental.

There is another group who's name I can't recall. They are similar to Chassids. I'll try and find it and edit it later.

Finally you have a group called the Messianics. They are NOT jews...but they claim to be. Messianics claim to be Jews that have accepted Christ, but still follow the talmud. It is absurd. Messianics are a sect of Christians...but they call themselves Jews, and try to convert Jews. Many/most messianics are Christians who adopt Jewish clothing and culture to try infaltrating the religion.

In Israel there are various factions vying for political party. Israel is actually a majority secular...or non-practising....nation. The chassids are a small minority, but a key swing vote. They hold disproportionate power. There are also power struggles between sephardic Jews (ones of semitic heritage...i.e. African, middle eastern, Spanish heritage) and Ashkanazie (sp?) Jews (European descended Jews).

When it comes down to it though...our enemies consider us all the same. Because of this...we do tend to band together when it comes to common opposition. I am non-practising, but I would consider myself more allied with an Orthodox Jew then an atheist former Christian. Our enemies don't differentiate....I don't either.

I forgot to mention reconstructionist Jews. Johnny above me mentioned them. They are less observant of the Talmud then reform. I am closest in belief to being a reconstructionist Jew. My apologies Johnny.

I can't for the life of me remember this other branch. They are mostly active in NY. They are very conservative....somewhat similar to the Chassids. They might even be an off shoot of the Chassids.

Answer 2

Kabbalah is part of Judaism. There are some groups (and historically the Jewish tradition) was that one only studied Kabbalah AFTER one had already studied the Torah and the Talmud and also had a family (to give one more grounding in "this" world.) However, the Chasidim began the practice of studying the Kabbalah regardless of one's current knowledge level; this has been more or less adopted across groups. But...it is caveat emptor in studying Kabbalah. It is ancient, it has traditionally been secret, it has been hard to get...the result is that there are MANY many books and classes that claim to be Kabbalah which are not Kabbalah at all. And people buy them because they want "Kabbalah." And those buying it don't know what Kabbalah is supposed to be, so they don't know they are being misled. And those who DO know Kabbalah probably are not buying those amazon books, or buying strings or going to the class at the Y. Good luck. You can also find information under the heading of Chassidus.

Answer 3

I don't really think they HATE each other. See, Judaism is divided into 4 different sects if you will, I'll name them in order from most devout to least.
Orthadox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform
Pretty much the only difference is strictness of too which they follow the torah and to how much they go to services. They all read the EXACT same torah so they don't have any disagreements about what it says, just what it means.

Also, for instance, Orthadox Jews really shun homosexuality, eating non-kosher, stuff like that. I was raised reconstructionist, and in my temple there are homo-sexual couples, people who are rich, poor, black, white, asian, and theres even a trans-sexual too. However, unlike Islam or Christianity, these 4 classifications just describe your devoutness, not what you believe and what you don't.

Answer 4

Kind of, and kind of not. The three main branches (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform) all get along together pretty well, except for some sporadic places where some branches don't view the other branches "as Jewish" as the others. This is unfortunate, but it happens. Kind of like sibling rivalry. But on the whole, those three get along pretty well, and there aren't any large argument and they definitely don't kill each other. Then there are groups like the Neturei Karta, who are nutcases and who are like the black sheep of the family...not liked, but tolerated. Recently they aren't being tolerated anymore for the nonsense they pulled in Iran, and hugging the president who wants to kill all Jews. Mainstream Jews no longer associate or accept Neturei Karta in synagogues. Then there is Reconstructionist Judaism, which I don't know much about, but is not liked by Orthodox and isn't minded by Conservative and Reform.

Then we have the Messianics. These people aren't really Jews, and no branch of Judaism recognizes them as Jewish, yet they claim to be...usually they are made up of Chrstians who want to be called Jewish but don't want to live Jewishly.

None of these groups hate each other per se and no one of the groups would cause bodily harm to another member of the group, except the Neturei Karta who throw rocks at people (even tourists taking pictures) because they are extremists. But that's pretty much it.

Aaron--Chabadniks?

Answer 5

There are a few nutters on the fringe but generally no, the religion has got more liberal over the years rather than more fundamental which is the case with some of the others.

Answer 6

What you see is what you get. There is no anti-semitic jews out there, that's ridiculous. They all prey to the same god, and they all respect that. The problem with the other religions is that they don't worship the same way. That is what causes the problems. All religions ultimately worship "god", so why can't they all respect that. Who cares how you pray, isn't the fact that you pray good enough. I guess not.

Answer 7

Well there is the antisemitic branch of Judaism and it doesn't get along with the rest.
It believes in Haman the prophet.J/K

Yeah there are different sects and they don't all get along.
However you don't tend to see people taking it to far

Answer 8

You might want to look up Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Israeli Jews.

Answer 9

Strange as it may seem, no Jewish or Christian groups hate and kill each other. That is reserved for those led by Satan or his Demons. Even if they are named religious.

Answer 10

Yes. They're called in-laws.