Since biblical times, the Jews have been a people with one monotheistic
faith, Judaism, embodying both a religious and a national significance.
Following their expulsion from the Land of Israel some 2,000 years ago,
the Jews were dispersed to other countries, mainly in Europe, North Africa
and the Middle East. Over the centuries, they established many large
Jewish communities in lands near and far where they experienced long
periods of growth and prosperity, but were also subjected at times to
harsh discrimination, brutal pogroms and total or partial expulsions. Each
wave of persecution and violence strengthened their belief in the concept
of the 'ingathering of the exiles' and inspired individuals and groups to
return to their ancestral homeland.
By
the 18th century, most of the world's Jews lived in Europe where they were
confined to ghettos and had little interaction with the societies around
them. Within their communities, they managed their own affairs, adhering
to the body of Jewish law (Halakhah) which had been developed and
codified by religious scholars over many centuries.
The spirit of emancipation and nationalism which swept 19th century Europe
also penetrated the walls of the ghetto, generating the development of a
more liberal approach to education, culture, philosophy and theology. It
also gave rise to several Jewish movements, some of which developed along
liberal religious lines, while others espoused national and political
ideologies. As a result, many Jews, and ultimately the majority, broke
from traditional Jewish practice and its attendant way of life, with some striving to
integrate completely into the society at large.
The Zionist movement, founded at the
end of the 19th century, transformed the concept into a way of life, and
the State of Israel translated it into law, granting citizenship to every
Jew wishing to settle in the country.
The attainment of political independence and the mass immigration which
followed, doubling Israel's Jewish population from 650,000 to some 1.3
million in the first four years of statehood (1948-52), changed the
structure and fabric of Israeli society. The resultant social grouping
was composed of two main elements: a majority comprised mainly of veteran
settlers and Holocaust survivors from post-war Europe; and a large
minority of recent Jewish immigrants from the Islamic countries of North
Africa and the Middle East.
Religious Observance
Jewish society in Israel today is made up of observant and non-observant
Jews, comprising a spectrum from the ultra-observant Haredim to those who regard
themselves as secular. However, the differences between them are not
clear-cut. If religious observance is determined by the degree of adherence to Jewish
religious laws and practices, then 20 percent of Israeli Jews fulfill all
religious precepts, 60 percent follow some combination of the laws
according to personal choices and ethnic traditions, and 20 percent are
essentially non-observant. But as Israel was conceived as a Jewish state,
the Sabbath (Saturday) and all Jewish festivals and holy days have been
instituted as national holidays and are celebrated by the entire Jewish
population and observed by all, to a greater or lesser extent.
Other indicators of the degree of religious adherence might be the
percentage of parents choosing to give their children a
religiously-oriented education or the percentage of voters casting their
ballot for religious parties in national elections. The significance of
such statistics, however, is uncertain, as non-observant parents may
enroll their children in religious schools and many observant citizens vote
for non-religious political parties.
Basically, the majority may be characterized as secular Jews who manifest
modern lifestyles, with varied degrees of respect for and practice of
religious precepts. Within this majority are many who follow a modified
traditional way of life, with some choosing to affiliate with one of the
liberal religious streams.
Within the observant minority are many who adhere to a religious way of
life, regulated by Jewish religious law, while participating in the
country's national life. They regard the modern Jewish state as the first
step towards the coming of the Messiah and redemption of the Jewish people
in the Land of Israel.
In contrast, the Haredim believe that Jewish
sovereignty in the Land can be reestablished only after the coming of the
Messiah. Maintaining strict adherence to Jewish religious law, they
reside in separate neighborhoods, run their own schools, dress in
traditional clothing, maintain distinct roles for men and women and are
bound by a closely circumscribed lifestyle. Their community consists of
two subgroups: a small but volatile element which does not recognize the
existence of the state and isolates itself from it; and a pragmatic
majority which participates in Israeli politics with the aim of
strengthening the Jewish religious character of the state.
Inter-Jewish Dynamics
As there is no clear separation of religion and state, a central
inter-community issue has been the extent to which Israel should manifest
its Jewish religious identity. While some in the observant sector seek to
augment religious legislation beyond the scope of personal status, over
which it has exclusive jurisdiction, the non-observant sector regards this
as religious coercion and an infringement on the democratic nature of the
state. One of the ongoing issues focuses on the elements required to
define a person as a Jew. The observant sector advocates determining a Jew
as one born of a Jewish mother, in strict accordance with Jewish law,
while secular Jews generally support a definition based on the civil
criterion of an individual's identification with Judaism. These conflicts
of interest have given rise to a search for legal means to define the
demarcation between religion and state. Until an overall solution is
found, authority lies in an unwritten agreement, reached on the eve of
Israel's independence and known as the status quo, which stipulates that
no fundamental changes would be made in the status of religion.