“neo” means “new”, and there is a long history of people trying to invent a “new” version of Yiddishkeit, that would allow them to believe they are some connections to Torah and to the Ribbono shel Olam, while still having fun and the ability to live well. Probably the most successful “neo” versions of yiddishkeit are Christianity and Islam (the former clearly founded by OTD Yidden, the latter by mostly non-Jewish wannabees). More recently, the Reform movements and the Zionists are all attempts to break away from Torah (for the most part), while still claiming to be Jewish – if you study the results over the last two centuries, they have clearly failed in the “Jewish” part, but have been quite successful and building affluent lives, which was their first goal. The English expression for the “neo” movement is “having you cake and eating it to” (and wanting to still be Yid while throwing off inconvenience of Yiddishkeit is equally impossible).
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