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13.TheSecularIsraeli(Jewish)Identity:
AnImpossibleDream?
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi 
C
ertain similarities can be observed in secularization processes across societies.Secularization is always gradual and relative, moving continually to apronounced decline in common religious belies and behaviors while maintainingmany rituals surrounding rites o passage. Lie cycle rites, directly tied to individualidentity, survive even in highly secularized societies. Individual claims to identity labels (i.e. I am Catholic) oten persist in the absence o any belies or behaviors. I religiosity is measured as a continuous variable, and an individual can be assigneda score o zero to 100 based on commitment to religious belies and rituals, secularindividuals are those with scores at or close to zero.The case o Israeli Jews who consider themselves secular is unique because o its historical background, particularly the ormal involvement o the state o Israelin religious institutions. Zionism, and the State o Israel it created, represents oneresponse to the process o secularization among Jews, which has been more radicalthan in any other religious group. Jewish secularization has been vigorous andthorough ever since it started in the eighteenth century. It meant that Jewishidentity was maintained by individuals who completely stopped participating inthe behaviors inherent in the Jewish religion. This transormation amounted toa conscious attempt to remake a religious community into a nationality.Secularization in the Jewish case shows some universal eatures, together with uniquely Jewish aspects. I secularization is measured by distance rom thehistorical dominance o religion, or Jews it has meant creating distance rom thehistorical, rabbinic (Orthodox) Judaism created in the Middle Ages.Pre-modern Jewry had caste-like qualities, united by rules o excludingimpurity and preserving the integrity o endogamy. These rules were articulatedin the Talmud (canonized around 700 CE) and its derivative literature o 
 
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, and led to the development o countless rituals during thesubsequent centuries. Jewish communities across the medieval world, rom Yemen to Germany, shared the same rules and could communicate easily andagree on the correct wording o a bill o divorce (the most important documentin this tradition), the practice o ritual slaughter o animals or ood, andmenstrual taboos. There might have been slight dierences o emphasis orpractice between local communities but they all claimed to ollow the Talmudicinjunctions and maintained their loyalty to the letter and spirit o the Talmud. Jewish secularization in the modern period was tied to the rise o liberalcapitalism in Europe and the corresponding economic decline o most Jewishcommunities. Three hundred years ago European Jewry was a small, marginalgroup, completely outside the mainstream o social and cultural developments,a minority o outsiders. In 1800, there were about 1.5 million Jews in Europe,out o a European population o 100 million, and a world Jewish population o some 2.5 million.The modernization o European Jews, which took place between 1780 and1880, meant social and cultural dislocation on a massive scale. Emancipationor the Jews, the granting o citizenship and political rights, came against thebackground o the general European decline o religion and eudalism andthe rise o secular nationalism, democracy, and socialism. The rise o the new bourgeoisie and the appearance o the ideals o equality, popular representation,and pluralism, which ran counter to religious traditions, made emancipation orexcluded groups possible.Entry into the modern world via the granting o emancipation meantthe collapse o the internal Jewish consensus and society. Tearing down thegurative walls o the ghetto and the concrete limitations on participation insociety brought about not just the weakening, but the destruction, o traditionalcommunity structures. “Jewishness” was separated rom Judaism, with the resultthat most Jews today are such only in a sociological sense.Secularized Jews were a European reality by the early 19th century, anda signicant majority in Western Europe by its end. By that time, the processo secularization was making signicant inroads into Jewish communities inEastern Europe. Most sociological Jews today are “assimilated” and ar removedrom historic Judaism. In most cases, they have little idea what its traditions are.Less than 10 percent o world Jewry today preserves historical Judaism.The Zionist vision, created under the impact o the Enlightenment andEuropean nationalism and secularization, aces another kind o historical challengeamong Israeli Jews. While about hal o Israeli Jews are o European descent,the other hal comprises individuals whose ancestors lived in the Islamic world.
 
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Because that world has not experienced the Reormation or the Enlightenment,European secularization has aected it to a minimal degree, and religion hasremained more powerul than secular nationalism. Thus, Israeli Jews o non-European descent are oten more religious than their European counterparts.
The Role of the State
The State o Israel ormally regulates the religious involvement o its citizens inmany ways. The state maintains a list o recognized religions (16 at last count),and classies all its citizens (and resident non-citizens) according to religiousaliation. Marriage and divorce can take place only within the (recognized)religious group. Religious conversions rom one recognized group to another areregistered and reported. Vital statistics are reported based on religion (e.g. “livebirths by mother’s religion”).Israel denes itsel as the state o the Jewish people, meaning about 13 millionindividuals, only about hal o whom currently reside in Israel. Jews are viewedby the state not only as a religious group, but as a national group as well. Yet joining this national group is only possible through a religious conversion. Thusthe boundaries o the Jewish group are maintained by the system o religiouscourts, as well as by civil authorities. Attempts to have the state recognize anIsraeli nationality (as distinct rom citizenship) have been rejected time and againby the courts, and this rejection is supported by a solid majority o the public.The leadership o the state has always been totally non-observant. More-over, leaders o the religious parties, which almost always participate ingoverning coalitions, are always excluded rom the really important decisions.They are never involved in discussions about war, or the economy, and do noteven seem to aspire to be part o such ateul deliberations. O all Israeli primeministers since 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, GoldaMeir, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Shamir, Ehud Barak, BinyaminNetanyahu, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Menahem Begin, only the last everattended synagogue services outside o ullling an ocial or ceremonial duty,and even he did so rarely. It is important to note also that Israel’s intellectual,literary, scientic, and artistic elite is also overwhelmingly non-observant.But at the same time the political leadership shows reverence or traditionalsymbols o Jewish identity and especially identity boundaries. For example, theprime minister o Israel will not be seen, while on an ocial visit abroad, tobe travelling on the Sabbath. Neither will the prime minister o Israel be seendriving a car on Saturday in Jerusalem, even though he will not be seen in asynagogue.The state invests signicant public resources in the maintenance o historical
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