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Friday April 13, 2007

Is Israel a nation of ‘Jews of convenience’?

by sever plocker

An extraordinary scene was evident Passover eve at an Israeli food chain store that also stays open on Shabbat and holidays: Workers covered the shelves on which non-kosher-for-Passover foods were displayed.

The chain will neither display nor sell chametz during Passover — but neither does it shut its stores. The chain adheres to the law, without clashing with its clients’ expectations. Apparently they are not perturbed by the stores being open on Friday evenings and Shabbat, but are perturbed by chametz being sold openly.

The contradiction between a non-kosher store that violates Shabbat laws by opening its doors, and a store’s adherence to Passover food laws highlights the religious-traditional-secular conundrum for Jews living in Israel. According to a survey published in the Passover supplement of the Yediot Achronot newspaper, half the Jewish population in Israel views itself as “secular.” At the same time, the majority of secular Jews believe in God and keep kosher at home.

Furthermore, the majority of Jews who regard themselves as “traditional” (and many even as “religious”) don’t think twice about traveling on Shabbat, and consent to civil marriage.

The 2007 Israeli Jew model “is a Jew of convenience.” This new Jew does not rank the 613 commandments mentioned in the Torah according to their religious and traditional severity and importance, but rather, according to how they fit in to their modern lifestyles.

“The majority of Jews in Israel take an intermediary stance,” wrote sociologists Yochanan Peres and Ben Raphael in their paper, “Proximity and Dispute, Schisms in Israeli Society,” which demonstrates the selective adoption of religious perceptions and beliefs.

Shabbat, for example, is easily sacrificed in favor of entertainment and shopping, while refraining from eating non-kosher foods blends well into prevailing diet fads. Even Orthodox circles that once entrenched themselves in a stance that refuted Zionism are showing considerable flexibility. According to survey findings, half have adopted a worldview that sanctifies secular military service and Israeli statehood.

Survey conclusions are optimistic. The religious-secular gap is being bridged, and the risk of it creating a rift is becoming more remote. The walls are being torn down; borders distinguishing between the holy and the profane are being divided both ways; and there is mutual benefit between religious-traditional Judaism and secular Judaism.

The process can be defined as “Israeli Judaism”: the strengthening of the Jewish personal character as a main element of the Israeli character. It represents a response to the surge of anti-Semitism worldwide and the choice of the majority of Israelis. Particularly prominent are the closing of gaps on issues such as conversion, “who is a Jew” (a question that has ceased to concern the Israeli public) and Jewish marriage laws.

Common Jewish ground is overcoming schisms — whatever the definition of Judaism may be: culture, religious tradition, heritage, civilization, nationalism.

Within the classification of secular and orthodox Judaism, the typical Israeli Jew is positioned somewhere in the middle, very close to that of the typical American Jew — even though the laws American Jews choose to abide by often differ from those chosen by Israeli Jews.

In other words, their make-up changes according to location and time, since they are the outcome of personal preferences that are subject to cultural patterns, social environments and cost calculations.

Some will view this as the failure of Zionism, which sought to create a new type of Jew detached from his past and any ghetto-like characteristics. But this type of interpretation is erroneous. The more the nationalist elements of Judaism are strengthened, the more Zionism will thrive — because it serves as the Jews’ national freedom movement.

Sever Plocker is a columnist for ynetnews.com and Yediot Achronot.

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