Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel

2. RELIG 210: Lecture 14 (February 25, 2009) Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel

3. Strong connection to Land of Israel • Religious yearning to return • Historical connection • Jews living in Palestine • No precedent for large scale return • Jews in religious AND political exile • Return to Land of Israel linked to messianic redemption • Judaism designed for diaspora Is Zionism New Idea or Fulfillment of Jewish History?

4. “There are four oaths here: that they not rebel against the kingdoms; that they not force the End; that they not reveal their mystery to the nations of the world; and that they not ascend as a wall from the Exile.” (Midrash, Song of Songs Rab. 2:7) The Four Oaths and the Meaning of Exile

5. Failure of Emancipation • Rise of antisemitism across Europe • 1881 Russian pogroms • Jewish acculturation • Rise of nineteenth-century nationalist movements • Italy, Germany, Bulgarians, Rumanians,etc • Identity through territory and sovereignty Historical Changes

6. 1862 Moses Hess,Rome and Jerusalem • 1882 Leon Pinsker, “Autoemancipation” • Theodore Herzl (1860-1904) • The Jewish State, 1896 • First Zionist Congress, 1897 • “Zionism aspires to the securing of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, guaranteed by public law.” The Development of Zionism

7. The First Zionist Congress, 1897

8. Clear reason for antisemitism • Jews have no homeland • Alien people • Economic factors • No future for Jews in Diaspora • What is the solution? Zionism and the Jewish Question

9. 1882 First Wave of Immigration 1909 Tel Aviv founded 1917 British in Palestine; Balfour Declaration 1947 U.N. Votes to Partition Palestine 1948 State of Israel declared/War of Independence Founding of the State

10. Post-War Refugees

13. Political Zionism-Theodore Herzl • Saving the Jews • Cultural Zionism-Achad Ha-am • Preserving Judaism • Religious Zionism-Rabbi Kook • The Flowering of Redemption • Peoplehood/Diaspora Zionism • Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization Major Zionist Ideologies

14. What is the significance of the Land of Israel What is the purpose of Zionism? What is the vision for Jewish life in the Land? What is the future of Jews in the diaspora? Key Differences:

15. Multiple visions of Zionism still exist Visions have different views on internal politics, role of religion, meaning of territory, funding priorities Knesset debate: Rambam vs. John Locke Tensions in Zionism

16. What Is a Jewish State?

17. What is a Jewish State? • Halachah? • Civil Religion • Division of Church and State? • Minority Religions?

18. Civil Religion • Calendar • Holidays • Education • National Narratives

19. Jerusalem Friday Afternoon and Saturday

20. Status Quo Agreement, 1953 • All Jews under jurisdiction of chief rabbinate for personal status issues • Public observance of Jewish Law • No transporation on the Sabbath • All government institutions have Kosher food

21. Personal Status Laws

22. Marriage

23. Divorce

24. Burial

25. Are they Jewish?

26. Who is a Jew • Law of Return: “a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of grandchild of a Jew, except a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion.” • Halachah: Matrilineal Descent or Orthodox Conversion

27. Conversion

28. Is this Kosher?

29. Chief Sephardic Rabbi Eliahu • "Certainly there is religious freedom for Moslems and Christians, but for Jews only the Orthodox way of religious observance is allowed"

30. Control of Holy Sites

31. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-xjZWX5rlE Women of the Wall video

32. Other Implications • Funding for Ministry of Religion • Tolerance/Support for Minority Religions • 5.4 million Jews • 1.2 million Muslims • 149,00 Christians • 117,000 Druze

33. Status Quo, 1953 • Any government leader must prescribe for himself priorities, must decide on first things first...(W)here there was agreement on what was urgent to me, I was prepared to make concessions on what was urgent to others...When I wanted to introduce national service conscription, the religious parties said they would of course support it but they insisted that all army kitchens be kosher. Kosher kitchens to them were of paramount importance; to me they were of subsidiary interest. It was a price I was prepared to pay for their full-fledged support on a vital defense measure...In the same way I agreed not to change the status quo on religious authority for matters of personal status. I know it was hard on some individuals. But I felt, again in the national interest, that it was wise to...pay the comparatively small price of religious status quo."

34. Religious Communities in Israel • Secular (Hiloni) • Religious (Dati) • Haredi/Ultra Orthodox • Zionist • Anti-Zionist • Orthodox Zionists • Mizrahi • “Traditional”

37. Anti-Zionist Haredi

38. Hesder Program

40. Ovadia Yosef-Mizrachi Religious Leader

41. New identity based upon citizenship and secular Hebrew culture Is Israeli identity Jewish? What links Israelis with Jews in the diaspora? Israeli and Jew

42. American Jews initial hesitation toward Zionism/Israel (1897-1940s) • Close ties between American Jews/America and Israel (1948-1980’s) • Philanthropy • Jewish Continuity • Fragmentation in American Jewry’s attitude toward Israel • Dwindling sense of Jewish peoplehood • Tension between universal values and perception of Israel American Judaism and Zionism