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157
158 Secularism & Secularity
rabbinical responsa, and led to the development of countless rituals during the
subsequent centuries. Jewish communities across the medieval world, from
Yemen to Germany, shared the same rules and could communicate easily and
agree on the correct wording of a bill of divorce (the most important document
in this tradition), the practice of ritual slaughter of animals for food, and
menstrual taboos. There might have been slight differences of emphasis or
practice between local communities but they all claimed to follow the Talmudic
injunctions and maintained their loyalty to the letter and spirit of the Talmud.
Jewish secularization in the modern period was tied to the rise of liberal
capitalism in Europe and the corresponding economic decline of most Jewish
communities. Three hundred years ago European Jewry was a small, marginal
group, completely outside the mainstream of social and cultural developments,
a minority of outsiders. In 1800, there were about 1.5 million Jews in Europe,
out of a European population of 100 million, and a world Jewish population of
some 2.5 million.
The modernization of European Jews, which took place between 1780 and
1880, meant social and cultural dislocation on a massive scale. Emancipation
for the Jews, the granting of citizenship and political rights, came against the
background of the general European decline of religion and feudalism and
the rise of secular nationalism, democracy, and socialism. The rise of the new
bourgeoisie and the appearance of the ideals of equality, popular representation,
and pluralism, which ran counter to religious traditions, made emancipation for
excluded groups possible.
Entry into the modern world via the granting of emancipation meant
the collapse of the internal Jewish consensus and society. Tearing down the
figurative walls of the ghetto and the concrete limitations on participation in
society brought about not just the weakening, but the destruction, of traditional
community structures. “Jewishness” was separated from Judaism, with the result
that most Jews today are such only in a sociological sense.
Secularized Jews were a European reality by the early 19th century, and
a significant majority in Western Europe by its end. By that time, the process
of secularization was making significant inroads into Jewish communities in
Eastern Europe. Most sociological Jews today are “assimilated” and far removed
from historic Judaism. In most cases, they have little idea what its traditions are.
Less than 10 percent of world Jewry today preserves historical Judaism.
The Zionist vision, created under the impact of the Enlightenment and
European nationalism and secularization, faces another kind of historical challenge
among Israeli Jews. While about half of Israeli Jews are of European descent,
the other half comprises individuals whose ancestors lived in the Islamic world.
13. The Secular Israeli (Jewish) Identity 159
Because that world has not experienced the Reformation or the Enlightenment,
European secularization has affected it to a minimal degree, and religion has
remained more powerful than secular nationalism. Thus, Israeli Jews of non-
European descent are often more religious than their European counterparts.
Social Characteristics
Religiosity levels among Israeli Jews have been systematically measured in
numerous surveys. Ben‑Meir and Kedem2 have developed two indices, for
religious beliefs and for religious observance (behavior). These indices were based
on a 1970s survey of a stratified random sample of the urban Jewish population
in Israel.
The belief scale starts with the belief in the immortality of the soul (29
percent agreement in the sample), then goes on to the belief in the coming of the
Messiah (36 percent), to belief in the Jewish people as chosen (57 percent), and
to the final item, belief in God (64 percent). Twenty-two percent did not drive
on Saturday, and 44 percent reported keeping to the dietary separation between
meat and milk. Seventy‑four percent claim to fast on the Day of Atonement, 88
percent light Hanukka candles, and 99 percent take part in the Passover meal.
Since the Ben‑Meir and Kedem3 benchmark study, there have been several
additional surveys assessing observance level among Israeli Jews. According to
Kedem,4 the levels of non-observance between 1962 and 1988 ranged from 22
percent to 32 percent of the Jewish population. Self-identification as a secular
Israeli means a lower likelihood of religious belief and a much lower likelihood
of religious observance.
The question of Jewish identity and self-definition is discussed quite often
in the Israeli media, and the results of systematic surveys reported regularly. A
2004 survey showed that 81 percent of Israel’s population defined themselves
as Jewish; 12 percent as Muslim; 3.5 percent as Christian (both Arab and non-
Arab); 1.5 percent as Druze; 1.5 percent as Atheist; and another 0.5 percent
as followers of other religions. Among Muslims living in Israel, 11 percent
defined themselves as very religious; 49 percent as religious; 21 percent
as not so religious; and only 18 percent as not religious at all. In terms of
religiosity, among Israeli Jews aged 20 and over, 44 percent defined themselves as
secular; 27 percent defined themselves as traditional; 12 percent as traditionally
observant; 9 percent as Orthodox; and 8 percent as ultra-Orthodox.
The ideological gap between the elements of the population with a European
Enlightenment heritage and those with a legacy of the Islamic world was clearly
demonstrated in this survey. In 2004, there was a particularly high prevalence
of the secular label, 63 percent, among native Israelis of European descent,
compared to 33 percent among native Israelis of Asian origin, and 25 percent of
native Israelis of North African origin. This was consistent with earlier surveys,
which showed higher levels of observance among Mizrahim (Eastern Jews).5
In terms of income, secular Jews had the highest levels, followed by the
Orthodox, the traditionally observant, and at the bottom the ultra-Orthodox.
13. The Secular Israeli (Jewish) Identity 163
Secular Jews also had the highest level of education, with 32 percent reporting
higher education.
A 2005 survey by Ephraim Yaar for the Shmuel Neeman Institute for
Advanced Study in Science and Technology at the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology in Haifa reported that 41 percent of secular Israelis believed in God
(compared with 52 percent who did not). Sixteen percent of secular Jews believed
in heaven and hell, and 23 percent agreed with the statement that “nature is
spiritual or holy.” In a 2006 survey, 47 percent of the self-defined secular said
they believed in God, but only 6 percent observed the Sabbath prohibitions.
and the long period of submission and passivity (between 135 CE and 1880
CE). Thus the years when there was no Jewish sovereignty should be largely
erased from the collective memory.
Zionism, in rejecting rabbinical Judaism, started a “biblicalization” of
Jewish history and identity. Biblical Hebrew and biblical mythology became
the cornerstones of the new nationalism. The ancient Jewish past in the Holy
Land was seen as marked by activism, pride, and a readiness to fight and die
for national independence. The leap over the history of nearly 2000 years of
rabbinical tradition and Diaspora experience, aimed at landing in a past of
glorious national sovereignty, to be overshadowed only by future grandeur.
The reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible started with nineteenth century
Hebrew literature and the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) movement, which
discovered new heroes and new ideas in the ancient texts. Those who wanted to
revive Hebrew found the Bible to be a source of classical Hebrew style, and a
repository of great literature. Today’s interpretation of the Bible, as it is studied
in all Israeli schools, is a direct continuation of the 19th-century approach.
Observing a so-called secular Israeli nursery school today will demonstrate
that children as young as three are taught the Genesis story of the creation,
the Exodus story, starting with the baby Moses in the bulrushes, and so on.
These stories are taught every year in the same order, in connection with related
religious holidays. In elementary school they are taught as the starting point
of national history. Thus most non-observant adults in Israel believe in the
historicity of the Old Testament texts.
Following 19th-century revitalization ideals, secular Israelis often claim that
they represent a new, and still authentic, kind of Judaism, by trying to defend
their historically recent conception. Orthodox Jews have no such problem. They
don’t have to apologize because no one will ever doubt their Jewishness and
their Judaism, which are historically authentic. If you claim to be Jewish you
cannot gainsay these representatives of Jewish history and historical Judaism.
Thus, in any debate about Jewish identity, and there are many of those in Israel,
the secular side tends to be apologetic while the Orthodox side is confident and
secure.
Those who describe themselves as non-observant among Israeli Jews choose
to follow a pattern of minimal observance, which is still acceptable in terms of
the medieval rules of the rabbinate. “Secular” Jews claim a Jewish identity and
so inevitably follow the minimal requirements of Orthodox Judaism whereby
divorce (more important than marriage) can be handled only by rabbinical
courts. Beyond the minimal requirements, secular Jews also follow the rituals
of circumcision for male infants, mezuzah (door amulet), and bar-mitzvah for
13. The Secular Israeli (Jewish) Identity 165
boys at age 13. As a result the Orthodox rabbinate still views them as worthy
of Orthodox marriage and burial rites, because they are matrilineal Jews, whose
lineage is not marred by an improper divorce. The Orthodox have agreed to a
national consensus, which is rejected only by the ultra-Orthodox. The latter
refuse to marry members of the secular sub-culture, just as they will not marry
converts. This reasoning has to do with menstrual taboos, which make most
Jews in the world today impure in their eyes.
Secular Jewish Israelis are highly offended when the authenticity of their
Jewishness is challenged. This is done often enough, and easily, by Orthodox
spokesmen. All it takes is for the particular rabbi to refer to secular Jews as “rabbit
eaters” (referring to their non-observance of food taboos), or as “men having sex
with menstruating women.” In 1999, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, the leader of the
Shas ultra-Orthodox religious political party, described the justices of the Israel
Supreme Court, as men who had sex with menstruating women. This caused
a storm of denunciations from the secular camp. Yet the incident proved the
power of ancient taboos, and the vacuity of the notion of Israeli secular Jews. If
you are truly secular, why should you get upset over a factual description of your
disregard for ancient taboos?
Israel is an ideological state, a state with a mission, and the mission is to
revitalize Jewish identity in its ancient homeland. Most secular Jews in Israel are
committed to this mission. Whether secular or observant, there is a national
consensus around the overall Jewish identity label. Thus, so-called secular
individuals who are distant from the Talmudic tradition still help to keep its
spirit alive. Zionism is dedicated to preserving Jewish identity, though in a new
form. However, it cannot betray its links to a historical Jewish identity, which can
only in essence be religious.
Endnotes
1. Hayman, Ronald. Proust: A Biography. (New York: HarperCollins, 1990) p. 108.
2. Ben‑Meir, Yehuda and Peri Kedem. “Index of religiosity of the Jewish population of
Israel.” Megamot, 1979, 24, 353‑362. (Hebrew).
3. Ibid.
4. Kedem, Peri. “Dimensions of Jewish religiosity” Ed. Zvi Sobel and Benjamin Beit-Hal-
lahmi. Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Judaism and Jewishness in Contemporary Israel.
(Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1991).
5. Ibid.
6. Beit‑Hallahmi, Benjamin, and Michael Argyle. The Psychology of Religious Behaviour,
Belief and Experience. (London: Routledge, 1997).