Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the most prevalent myths about Israel is that it is organized on the basis of religion.
Yet the principle on which the state is founded is that the basis of Jewish identity is purely, or
even mainly, a matter of peoplehood. True, the primary indicator of that identity is religion —
at least in terms of the historic background of its individual members —but identity is not
based on a theological viewpoint or a theocratic worldview. For example, Spain, Poland, and
Italy are historically Catholic countries, yet their basis for national identity is primarily one of
peoplehood and common history, not religion.
In contrast to other modern religions, Judaism is a faith related to only a single people.
Yet what appears to be a religious word —“Jewish”— actually refers to religion and national
identity simultaneously. This extended meaning is made instantly clear by substituting words
historically used to describe Jews that have a clear national reference, such as “Israelite” or
“Hebrew.” Of course, like a Spanish, Polish, or Italian Catholic immigrant to other lands, a
Jew can choose to assimilate into a different national culture whether or not he or she retains
the original Jewish religion.
Even the most punctiliously religious Haredi Jews recognize as Jewish those who are non-
observant or atheist if they are also of Jewish descent, meaning at minimum that they have a
mother who is Jewish. Israeli law recognizes as Jewish, for purposes of immigration, anyone
who has at least one Jewish grandparent — a grandparent who identifi es himself or herself as
Jewish. Although Israelis recognize Judaism as their national religion, as a central element in
their history and culture, most are not religiously observant. Thus, Israel is a state based on
nationalism; it is not a theocracy.
At the same time, though, given the interlacing of Jewish history and religion, many of-
fi cially sanctioned practices in Israel do originate in religious structures and traditions, often
quite secularized in the process of being adapted. For example, the cycle of the holidays arises
directly from Jewish religious observances. But that religious system, in turn, arose from the
cycle of the mainly agricultural year in the ancient Land of Israel. Thus, one can argue that
religious Judaism is an aspect of “Israelite” society and history just as easily as that Israel is a
“Jewish state.”
Hanukkah, for instance, is a religious holiday, but it marks a political historical event: the
reestablishment of Jewish independence after the Maccabean revolt. While most Israeli Jews
light Hanukkah candles, many do not accept or adopt the associated religious laws. Sukkot is a
religious festival, but it is based largely on harvest time. To put it a different way, with some ex-
ceptions — mainly marriage, divorce, and burial— there is not much confl ict between religios-
ity and secularism when they are seen through their common historical /national background.
Although Israel incorporates religion into the state and governance to a greater extent than
in other contemporary Western democratic societies, it does so in a far different way than they
did historically, too. As a result, the close relationship between Israeli society and religion has
not inhibited an emphasis on modernism, innovation, and pragmatism —which makes Israel
quite different from tradition-bound, religiously guided societies. This paradox is often ex-
pressed in kitschy photographs contrasting black-coated religious Jewish men walking down a
street near miniskirted women or showing diners at a secular kibbutz sitting down to a seder,
a traditional Passover meal.
