THE WILD GOATS OF EIN GEDI: A Journal asl Religius Encounters on the Holy Land

The Habbi of Temple Israel, South Orange, N.J., is an intelligent traveller and his report on the status of religion in the nation of Israel, eradic of three great western religions, reveals his search for ""personal source springs of spirit"". In several trips he made numerous ""digs"" into various sections of the Jewish community -- orthodox, reform and Karalle, Into Arab areas and the large groups of returning Christians, and, along with other observations, he found the Jews too political and materialistic with small sections that would about equate with our beatniks; the Arabs derided and persecuted by the Jews; the Christians finding new meanings to their own religion. A conclusion of ""no evidence of great religious atirrings in the Holy Land"" is tempered by a more hopeful statement that there is something in the soil, the shape and the climate of the land that makes for a certain type of religiosity, an openness to the future with a refusal to accept that future which merely repeats the past. Although the mystery of Israel remains a mystery this record from one to whom all doors were open has a definite current interest.