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SHAH: THE WESTERN ORDER OF JAINISM
found among the diminishing orthodox minorities. In the (world-wide) majority non-orthodox communities there are even women Rabbis. The home and family based nature of much of Jewish life, e.g. sabbath and festival observances, is an important aspect of Jewish community life not often seen by non-Jews and its importance is therefore often underestimated. In terms of day to day religious behaviour, e.g. in synagogue worship, Jews have modernised their worship as the Christian Churches did in the past few centuries. The effect of these changes has been to make conduct in churches and synagogues more orderly, with greater decorum and with greater participation of worshippers in a more organised type of service.
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The U.K. Jewish community is relatively traditional and conservative. It is the only major Jewish community where orthodox institutions are in a majority, even though the Jewish members of these institutions are not orthodox either in belief or practice! This conservatism has to some degree maintained the separate identity of U.K. Jews and preserved their distinctive traditions. In the U.S.A., by contrast, the pervasiveness of the American idea of an open, mixed and eclectic culture has produced very unusual results. It is not by accident that American society both produces large numbers of 'new' religious cults and, at the same time blurrs, the distinctiveness of cultures. This latter effect has been termed 'the MacDonaldisation of society, meaning the spread of a very uniform culture to all groups in society. Any group wishing to preserve a distinct cultural or religious tradition must therfore work very hard to maintain their difference in the face of the relentless homogenisation common in American society.
Buddhists
The religious group which is perhaps closest to the Jains in the West are the Buddhists. A distinct strategy has been adopted to create a Western Buddhist community. There has not been an attempt simply to transplant Buddhism to the West without taking account of Western society and culture. On the contrary, there has been a planned adaptation of Buddhism to Western modes. This has proved to be highly successful. Buddhism has even succeeded in influencing Western religious attitudes and practices and has established itself as a respected and valued part of Western religious life. The main thrust of the Western Buddhist Order, as it calls itself, has been the promotion of (a) certain religious practices, (b) changes in lifestyle and conduct and religious and spiritual learning.
(a) Western Buddhism promotes the practice of meditation as a
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