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Following the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, Jewish life assumed a unique character.
Instead of just one center in the Land of Israel,
there were two parallel centers which for generations existed alongside each other
and whose identity changed from time to time: the Land of Israel and Babylonia,
Sepharad and Ashkenaz, Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire,
and today – the State of Israel and American Jewry.
The relations between these centers have been characterized by tensions and cross-fertilization,
differences of opinion and mutual understanding, while acknowledging the allure of variety.
