Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Jewish Religious Life
The public's understanding of Israeli religiosity has been informed by a series of major studies,
most signifi cantly the 1997 Guttman Report, a comprehensive examination of Israeli religious
attitudes and practices. Historically, religiosity was seen in terms of two mutually exclusive
camps — religious and secular —with a sharply defi ned boundary between them. But surveys
have found a wide variety in attitudes toward religion, ranging from totally nonobservant to
very strictly observant.
The idea of a spectrum rather than two separate camps is now accepted as accurate. Aside
from highly secular and fully observant, there are two other broad attitudes: predominantly
secular people who observe some religious rituals — for example, they celebrate bar and bat
mitzvahs; fast on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur; and hold a Passover seder — and tradi-
tionalists, often Mizrahim, who observe the religious laws selectively. Here, the classic example
is to conduct the religious service at home for starting the Sabbath but then to watch television,
thereby contravening the religious law that bars the turning on of electrical appliances. Such
hybrid attitudes have become common.
The Guttman Report found that a majority of Israeli Jews expressed a commitment to Jewish
continuity, celebrate major holidays in some manner, and perform lifecycle rituals to some de-
gree. Such behavior owes as much or more to “identifi cation with the Jewish people”— that is, the
motivation is what might be called ethnic-national rather than theological. The report concludes
that 93 percent of Israeli Jews observe at least Shabbat,
kashrut
(Jewish dietary laws), or Jewish
holidays to some extent, even though one-fi fth defi ne themselves as completely nonreligious.
Although the largest group in Israel used to be described as secular, the report found that
only 20 percent, mostly Ashkenazim, described themselves that way. The largest group, around
40 percent, saw themselves as “somewhat observant.” Of this group, 70 percent were Mizrahi.
Fourteen percent of Israeli Jews, mostly Ashkenazim, reported that they were “strictly obser-
vant,” and an additional 24 percent said they were “observant to some extent.”
The Guttman Report found that 70 to 80 percent of the Jewish population marks the Sab-
bath in some way, perhaps simply by lighting candles, saying the blessing over wine, or hav-
ing a family meal. The percentage of the population that adheres to the prescriptions for that
day — such as not driving a car, cooking, or using electricity — is much smaller. Shabbat ob-
servance is marked most often by carrying out rituals at home on Friday evening, by refraining
from salaried work, by relaxing, and by spending Saturday with family, although the activities
are not necessarily done in strict accordance with Jewish law.
Ashkenazic Jews are more likely to have an all-or-nothing approach toward ritual ob-
servance than are Mizrahi Jews, many of whom do not see a contradiction or hypocrisy in
attending an Orthodox synagogue Saturday morning and a soccer match Saturday afternoon.
But the new Israeli approach is to pick and choose which religious traditions to observe. This
is not normative Judaism as it has existed historically. It is the transformation of religion into
ethnic-national custom.
High numbers of Israeli Jews not only mark the Sabbath but observe the major holidays
in some way. Nearly four-fi fths of the population participates in a Passover seder, and over
