Handbook of Israel: Major Debates

Syllabus Cultures and Society in Israel, 2019

Course Description: This course explores the complexity of contemporary Israeli cultures and society, with an anthropological lense. We will begin with understanding the theoretical frameworks that are useful in analyzing complex cultural and political situations. We will then begin with a historical analysis of Israel, leading into an understanding of the political and legal structure of the modern state. This will lead us into the influence and basics of Jewish religious law. From there, we will explore the variety of cultures of the country, focusing on minority and contested groups: intermarriage, non-Orthodox conversions, and minority ethnic Jewish groups. How do these laws and the conflicting beliefs affect members of these groups? Finally, we will discuss other minority groups in Israel, such as the Druze, Bedouin, Bahai, and Christian Arabs. During this course, you will pursue research projects that will deepen your familiarity and understanding of a sociocultural question pertaining to Israel, and its interconnectedness with expats and global Jewry. In doing so, you will gain training in research, community engagement, writing and presentation skills. By the end of this course, you will possess basic knowledge and analytical tools that will enable you to critically examine Israeli cultures and society.

It is now more than fifty years since the State of Israel was established. It has passed the initial stages of nation building and is today, in many respects, a Western, technological society. It was never, however, a "new nation," created ex nihilo. It was built, in large measure, on the experience of ideologically driven Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel (Palestine), which began in the nineteenth cen tury. It also had as its background the Holocaust and its tragic results for the Jewish people; war and an ongoing military struggle with neighboring coun tries; and the necessity of absorbing unprecedented numbers of new immigrants from very different backgrounds. It has a multiethnic population, comprising groups that vary widely in their degree of Jewish cultural traditionalism as well as their level of modernization. While the challenges of immigration, absorp tion, and the external threat of war served as unifying factors for Jewish society in Israel for much of Israel's history, the situation has shifted in recent years. Partly as a result of the establishment of formal relations with a number of major Arab neighboring states and the ongoing search for reconciliation with the Palestinian Arabs-a relationship which again flared up and doused aspira tions for a speedy accord-the strengthened self-assurance of Israel's long-term existence shifted the focus of Israeli public discourse to domestic matters. In addition, Israel has experienced significant socioeconomic development and, along with it, the emergence of a pattern of individualism characteristic of other advanced Western societies. Additional Western, mainly American, cultural influ ences, particularly in the area of consumerism, have also, through rapid growth in electronic communication, increasingly penetrated, inter alia, into Israel's so cial structure. Israel of today is thus a society in transition where different sets of values occasionally increase intergroup tensions and challenge social cohe sion. The rhythm of events, trends, and innovation in various areas is intense. Israel continues to be a living laboratory for social research. This book consists primarily of new articles, as well as a few that are expan sions and elaborations of previous work, by foremost specialists on the central issues of contemporary Israeli Jewish society. Our approach to understanding Jewish life in Israel is largely interdisciplinary but with an overriding sociologi cal perspective. We focus on the behaviors of people, rather than institutions or organizations, within the many social, cultural, and political realms. We begin with a social history of Jews in Israel over the last century (Rebhun), to provide background for the rest of the volume. This is followed by a detailed analysis by

Journal of Contemporary Religion , 2011

American Jewish History, 2003

Journal of Literature and Art Studies

Today's society in Israel is divided and torn on many issues, including religion, and Jewish and Israeli identity, yet occasionally, a single event emerges which combines several divisions. One such issue is the "identity crisis" also known as the question of "Who is a Jew?". This is a thorny complex problem, and one which has not yet been awarded a clear-cut constitutional solution. For example, it continues to be debated whether the religious definition should be the decisive factor, that is, should a Jew defined as an individual born to a mother who is Jewish or has been converted according to halacha, or whether Israeli identity is the more critical element and whether any individual born in or immigrated to Israel who served in the army, works and pays taxes in Israel, and identifies with the state's values should be identified as a Jew? In this paper, the author wishes to focus on equally complicated issue, although one has attracted less attention. This is the issue of halachic polarization or extremism that characterizes Judaism in modern Israel. Following a brief historical explanation, the author defines the problem at hand, and propose a solution.

Israel Affairs, 2020

2010

The role of religion in Israel may be studied from a range of disciplines, including sociology, history and law. In this chapter, we will offer a broad survey of the topic and try to give a little bit of everything to offer a basic introduction to this topic. Since Judaism is the biggest religious group and Israel defines it self as a Jewish state, I will focus on Judaism. Beginning with an historical background, I will not mention numbers and percentages since the published reports are conflicting and the definitions used are inordinately vague.

International Politics Reviews, 2015

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