The Jewish idea of the afterlife has evolved over time, I tried looking up what they believe on the internet but couldn’t find it. So then I turned to a friend of mine who is a Rabbi and this is what he told me.
He said that anyone can get to heaven as long as they have more good works over their bad works. So a atheist can get to heaven, a Muslim, Christian, Hindu etc. can get to heaven. They call Heaven, “Sheol.” They teach that it’s where the presence of God is and a waiting place for when the, “coming” messiah shall resurrect the dead.
So what about the people who have more bad works then good works? Oh, they get to go to heaven too. Everyone goes to go to heaven. But before they go to heaven they have to go through Gahanna, basically what Catholics would call Purgatory. They believe they are purged there for about 11 months, sometimes 12 to 13 months, but usually it takes about 11 months for them to be purged according to them. They say the presence of God is what purges us.
They believe when the promised messiah “comes” he will resurrect all the dead and every human will live on earth peacefully with the messiah.
To conclude, there is no hell in modern Judaism. Heaven (Sheol) and Gahanna (Purgatory) are the only two places in the Jewish afterlife.
(BTW, some Jews say that some people maybe reincarnated if they did not complete something in their life’s before entering into heaven. And some Jews will say there is no afterlife at all, just a resurrection.)
The view you cite as being that of “modern” Judaism is actually that of “liberal Judaism,” although I’m not sure that rabbi speaks for all followers of Reform and/or Conservative Judaism.
In the view of classic Rabbinic Judaism, it is certainly not true that atheists and idolaters will go to “heaven” if they have more “good works.” In fact, their works are not considered wholly “good” because their actions are not derived from a desire to follow God’s will. If an atheist gives charity because he wants to live in a pleasant and orderly society, that’s actually self-serving. Or, he’s massaging and quieting his God-given conscience without admitting that it derives from a divine source - also self-serving. Of course, I’m oversimplifying, but you get the drift. However, there is also a principle that “The Holy One, blessed is He, does not withhold the reward of any creature.” Since God is good and just, no good deed goes unrewarded, no matter who does it - even an evildoer. BUT - that person is materially rewarded in this world, not the next. Anyway, why should he be admitted into the reward in the next world that he didn’t even believe in when he was alive?
Non-Jews can also be rewarded in the next world if they are moral and good people and
believe in God. It doesn’t work with “percentages,” you don’t need 50.1% good works to get a heaven entry-pass. Rather, God forgets nothing and rewards every single good deed according to its level of goodness, and punishes every single bad deed, unless a person repents for it while he is alive.
Judaism has a punishment in the afterlife, Gehennom, which includes both a concept of “purgatory” so to speak, as well as everlasting torment for those really evil people who sin especially grievously. Ask your rabbi if he believes Hitler is still there. Unfortunately, I’m afraid he might say no.
The JewFAQ website seems to have a pretty good synopsis of the real deal.
By the way, another error is that the “messiah” will resurrect the dead. He will do no such thing. As the classic poem “Yigdal,” found in the beginning of every traditional prayer book, says: “Meitim yechayye El” - “
God will revive the dead”.
