Which Jews?
Indeed. This is precisely the point. Jews vary in their beliefs, even within one particular movement of Judaism. Interestingly, the greatest variation is not within Reform Judaism, but within Conservative Judaism, because that is really the middle ground for Jews not comfortable with the demands of Orthodox Judaism yet not politically aligned with the looser, more liberal, and less traditionally oriented Reform Jews.
In Conservative Judaism you will find Jews who keep kosher laws (like Orthodox Jews) and those who don't (like most Reform Jews). But even within Reform Judaism, practices and beliefs vary.
What one could say about all Jews is that belief does not necessarily predict what we would call doctrine or
formal belief, because doctrine is not structured like in Catholicism. That is why you see the variation. The reaction to this fact might be to conclude that Jews are "just like Protestants" in this respect, but all Jews honor tradition (and traditional belief) vastly more than most Protestants do.
Even a particular Rabbi of a congregation does not call his congregants to account for variations in belief. What a Jew will do, if he wants his private belief authenticated, is to discuss it with his Rabbi -- as to whether it concords with or can be reconciled with core Jewish beliefs. Keep in mind that core Jewish beliefs are fewer than (obviously) Christian beliefs are. And while there are Jewish writers who can be legitimately called theologians, that theology is not within a "system" such as Catholic theology -- especially pre-V2 --has always been. The most systematized kind of theology in Judaism is actually scripture study; it is complex and integrated because it compares texts with each other and puts them in literary and spiritual context.
In addition, Jewish scripture scholars and students engage in their own form of
Lectio Divina, in that they employ Midrash -- a practice and discipline which seeks to more openly (less intellectually, perhaps) allow the interpreter to "move" from one spiritual concept in a passage to another spiritual concept not necessarily contained within it, but
eliciting a spiritual or theological concept, more poetically or intuitively, if you will. While there are established Midrashic commentaries (published scholarly interpretations based on Midrash), the exercise in itself can be practiced by the contemporary Jew knowledgeable enough to make that exercise fruitful.
Regarding Heaven and Hell:
The most unanimous belief in "some kind of an afterlife" is that which exists among the Chasidim, the most devout sect of Orthodox Judaism. Yet even then, the form of that afterlife lacks the specificity found in Catholicism, especially in Catholic visionary literature.
