by Dan Hazony
In a recent eJewishPhilanthropy newsletter, there were two articles that unknowingly interconnected large problems with the American Jewish community. Both the articles, A Less Spoken About Angle: The Threat Israel Presents to Jewish Peoplehood by Rabbi Uri Regev and Staying Present: Adult Mentors are Essential to Teens’ Lives and to Effective Jewish Teen Engagement by Deborah Meyer, when read together form a better understanding of the American Jewish young adults’ perception of Israel.
Rabbi Regev’s article takes a very strong attack on what he considers to be an Israel whose “policies on religion and state … undermine that very sense of Jewish peoplehood” and that constantly “discriminates against non-Orthodox rabbis.” While there are many fundamental differences and issues between Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis, the challenge is that the mindset of the average Israeli does not focus on nuances of denominations, but rather on a general religious versus secular divide. The topic of the ‘Women of the Wall’ has been widely publicized over the past few months, and I know a fundamental concern of Rabbi Regev’s for even longer. However, the issue represented only affects a minority of Israeli citizens: those who choose to affiliate with the Reform and Conservative movements. The vast majority of Israeli citizens who do not partake in religious ceremony choose so not because they don’t want to go to an Orthodox synagogue, but rather just because they don’t want to be engaged religiously. This is a large problem for American Jewry as well, except in Israel, assimilation is not as large a problem because of the constant immersion in Jewish peoplehood.
The statistic that 92% of participants in immersive service learning in Israel become more connected to the state and people when learning of issues in Israel is very impressive in its own right, but must be taken in context. The typical participant on one of these programs is looking for a way to do tikkun olam, or improve the world, and expressed an interest in going to Israel. The fact that they see that Israel has problems that need to be overcome allows them to connect to her in an unbelievably personal way. The only thing that this statistic tells us is that Repair the World, who commissioned this study of their programs, is doing a phenomenal job and is an example of how targeted Israel engagement by personal interest is succeeding.
The typical American Jewish young adult will never reach a program like those funded by Repair the World because they do not feel an urge to immerse themselves either in service learning, or in Israel, or neither. When reading Ms. Meyer’s article, she develops a strong theory and proof for why positive adult influence would subsequently positively affect young adults. While her article seems to state the obvious, it is a reality that is often forgotten and is important for us in the Jewish communal world to actively remember. The only point of connection with Israel and Jewish peoplehood for a vast majority of the young and unaffiliated is based on what public statements are being made by communal leaders. When an article appeared about the controversy surrounding Women of the Wall in The New York Times on April 26th, it was one of the few messages that they hear about the Jewish world.
The passion and turmoil expressed in Rabbi Regev’s article is an important conversation to have amongst Jewish leaders and active members of our community. What Ms. Meyer reminded us was that most young Jews don’t have the positive adult Jewish influence that would allow them to have an informed, constructive conversation about the topics at hand. Therefore, the large part of all our target population is only hearing a passionate sound bite that we struggle with on a daily basis, yet is completely detached from their reality. Many issues need to be fixed in Israeli society, but we need to speak about it in a personal way when one is ready. The role models that Ms. Meyer works so hard to train are the ones that should be leading the conversation in smaller groups within our community. Otherwise, it just seems like Jews are always fighting one another with lashon hara, derogatory speech, instead of touting all of the amazing things that Jews and Israel are doing for the world. The only effect that this has is the public perception of a divided Israel – not one that works hard to make the world a better place.
Dan Hazony is the Director of Information Systems at NCSY. He is looking forward to staffing his first Taglit Birthright Israel niche trip – “Israel Give and Tech” – focusing on how Israel uses technology and science to do tikkun olam around the world. He hopes that his 40 under affiliated participants will find their own special connection to Israel and Judaism through this experience.
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The 60-year exile of Israelis from religion appears to be coming to an end, thanks to the rise of uniquely Israeli modes of Jewish expression. The irony, and perhaps the bright spot, is that these new approaches, springing from secular roots, are extremely appealing to young Jewish adults – more than the offerings of the Conservative and Reform movements. Take a look at the work of organizations like Elul and Bina – it’s truly heartening!
Dan, you write:
“The vast majority of Israeli citizens who do not partake in religious ceremony choose so not because they don’t want to go to an Orthodox synagogue, but rather just because they don’t want to be engaged religiously.”
An analogy – if one were to look at American soft drink advertising in the 1980s one could easily assume the following:
– Pretty much everyone drinks either Coke or Pepsi
– No one drinks both Coke and Pepsi
– Sure, there are some people who like other soft drinks, but they don’t really matter
– It is not worth trying to introduce anything else into the market
The last point is the most interesting; many in the business world assumed, at the time, that there was no way to get a new drink to take hold. Some entrepreneurs, though, had a different perspective. They looked closer at American’s habits and learned that, once one delves deeper, there is a lot more going on than Coke and Pepsi. The 1990s saw the wild success of Snapple, Starbucks, and even bottled water! Fast forward to today, 30 years after the “cola wars”, and the legacy soda companies all own every other type of drink because only offering Coke and Pepsi is no longer sufficient.
Presenting Israeli society as only being Dati and Hiloni is as misguided as seeing Americans as only drinking Coke or Pepsi.
Some selections from the 2012 Guttman Avi-Chai report (link below) show a more complex picture of religion than the binary Dati/Hiloni conventional wisdom that you restate above:
• 85% of Israeli Jews say it is important to celebrate Festivals in a traditional manner
• 90% go to a Seder – a number that has been increasing over time
• 82% light Hanukkah candles
• 67% don’t eat Hametz on Pesach
• 68% fast on Yom Kippur
• 76% are Kosher in the home and 70% out of the home. “Most say that they do so for religious reasons.”
The majority behaviors above do not seem to be those practiced by someone identifying as “secular.”
I would argue that the secular/religious binary argument is the result of many years of successful PR by Orthodox leaders in Israel who have, with the support of many governments, convinced Israelis that Judaism itself is a binary, either/or proposition if one wants to be identified as a religious Jew. Israelis have been trained to assume that it is not enough to to all those things above; if you follow all those practices but you go to the movies on Shabbat you are not Dati and therefore, by definition, you are Hiloni.
I make the above point based on two other interesting numbers from the survey – 58% of Israelis support full access to weekday activities (shopping, movies, sports events) on Shabbat, and 61% believe that non-Orthodox streams of Judaism should have the same rights as the Orthodox. Since both opinions run counter to the Judaism of Dati’im they can only be the opinion of a Hiloni.
http://en.idi.org.il/events/conferences-and-seminars/findings-of-the-third-guttman-avi-chai-report/
To make the argument you are making in your opening paragraph is to assume that the Neshama of an Israeli Jew responds to different spiritual stimuli than the Neshama of an American, British, or Brazilian Jew.
One other point from the Guttman Report – the Dati/Hiloni dichotomy is more a European perspective on life than a Mizrachi one. Very high numbers of non-Ashkenazi Jews describe themselves as traditional even though the overall levels of specific observances are not too different from Ashkenazim.
Thank you both for your eloquent responses. I don’t think that we are disagreeing at all. I do not view Jewish religious expression in a binary state of hiloni vs. dati. However, there needs to be the acknowledgement that Israeli Jews have different modes of Jewish expression than do their Diaspora counterparts. In the Diaspora, Jews need to make a conscious decision to do Jewish actions – go to synagogue, partake in a local federation program, etc. It ultimately has the potential to make one stand out from the general crowd.
In Israel, however, there is the whole national component of Jewish identity. For many, celebrating Passover is like having turkey on Thanksgiving – a national past time that gives you an opportunity to come together as a family. Jewish tradition was setup with the intention of a Jewish nation in which all Jews live, hence our 613 laws and all of the surrounding commentary.
The social contract that binds any community ultimately turns to laws to help enforce expected norms. Like laws anywhere else in the world, people have a tendency and/or desire to break them, especially when no one is there to punish you. There is no equivalent to the “modesty police” of Saudia Arabia, because Israel is a democratic country, not a theocratic one.
Isaac – I couldn’t agree with you more. I do not know those organizations, but I’m sure they do great work to help Jews express their religion in a meaningful way.
Eitan — Notice the statistics that you are citing. They are about practice, following specific laws, not about denomination or labels. My point is that there is a very large gradient in Israel, not a binary state. In fact, the Guttman-Avi Chai report that you cite makes a very good point: “Most (81%) also agree with the assertion that without the Jewish religion the Jewish people would no longer exist. Nevertheless, more than half of the respondents agree that the Jews in Israel are a different nation than the Jews abroad.”
My point is that Jews in Israel are a different nation than the Jews abroad. Beyond the spiritual feeling of a nation that is hopefully felt by Jewry worldwide, Jewry in Israel actually has a nation in which to practice their Judaism. They do not need to go out and seek communal institutions to help them identify with the Jewish nation.
My point with the article is that the “Women of the Wall” are mainly a group of American olim who want to practice the same way they did religiously in the galut. They feel the need to label themselves as “Reform” or “Conservative” and then try to adhere to that practice in Israel. Much of the practice and belief of the two movements were offshoots to satisfy the need of American Jewry in the 20th century as they walked the tight rope of blending into American society and retaining their Jewish identity.
The insistence and practices of the Women of the Wall do not speak to the majority of Israeli society, but making sure that women feel equal is important. Therefore, they “support” the Women of the Wall. However, if this was a real issue for non-dati Israelis, then it would have been protested by non-olim a long time ago — this past summer proved that Israelis knew how to protest en masse for something important to them. Portraying to the whole world that this is a major point of contention in Israel, by featuring it in places like the New York Times, is just incorrect and unfair to all Israelis and the Jewish people. It wasn’t even cited in the Guttman-Avi Chai report. For most people in Israel, it is just a non-issue.