The Cultural Code of Jewishness

1. Amanda Mindlin Kevin Khosrowzadeh Angela Stevenson The Cultural Code of Jewishness

2. The main characteristic of the social and political order in Israel is its definition as a “Jewish state,” which tends to blur the boundaries between nationalism and religion. • This chapter analyzes Jewish primordialism and its institutional and legal consequences. • The cultural, social, economic, and constitutional conditions of primordialism reinforce one another, raising the “Jewish consensus” above all other conflicting cultures. • However, the state is also administered by Western universal secular codes. • Although most Israeli Jews are secular, their collective identity is largely defined by terms, values, symbols, and collective memory still anchored in the Jewish religion. • The two conflicting value systems are usually managed by compartmentalization and the application of different values in different contexts and social spheres.

3. The Construction of womanhood • Gender inequality in the socioeconomic sphere in Israel resembles that in most Western states. • However, in most Western liberal democracies, men and women at least formally share equal legal citizenship. • In Israel women are subject to explicit legal discrimination, because personal status laws are under the jurisdiction of rabbinical courts, which rule according to patriarchal Halachic law. • Recently, secular family courts have been established, but their authority is limited.

4. The construction of womanhood • Sociologist NitzaBerkovitch believes that woman in Israel have been constructed, not as equal individual citizens, but first and foremost as mothers and wives. • Demographic threat  population growth is a national imperative • Defense Service Law (1949) – imposes compulsory service on all physically eligible citizens of the state, except for married or pregnant women, mothers, or women who plead reasons of conscience or religious conviction. • Only about half of the women of relevant age have been drafted over the years and those who have been drafted have not filled the same roles as men • The Women’s Equal Rights Law (1951) – considerably improved the status of women in Israel, but still looked at women as only mothers and wives. • The Israeli state’s basic attitude to women’s citizenship has continued to emphasize their biological and sociological role as mothers and wives.

5. The construction of a democracy • Western scholars generally consider Israel to be a democracy. • The following 5 conditions are necessary for a regime to be classified as democratic: • 1) Periodic free elections, including the possibility of changing the ruling political elites or parties through such elections. • 2) Sovereignty of the people, exercised through a legislative system constructed by a parliament, according to which the judicial system operates. No independent or parallel legislative and judicial system can be created by the state. • 3) Equal and inclusive citizenship and equal rights. • 4) Universal suffrage where every vote is equal. • 5) Protection of the civil and human rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. • Only one of the 5 necessary conditions for considering Israel a democracy is present. • Rights within the state are determined more according to ethnic-national religious belonging than according to citizenship.

6. State and ethnicity • Whenever the authorities have claimed that “state security” was involved, the High Court of Justice has simply accepted it. • Ex – the High Court’s sanctioning of Israel’s violation of international law in allowing Jewish settlement of the occupied Arab territories. • International law forbids an occupying power to make any substantial changes in the status of occupied territories, except for reasons of security. • Accordingly, from the perspective of the HCJ, all the settlements in the territories were built for security reasons. • The general political culture also condones discrimination against Arabs.

7. State and Ethnicity • The state of Israel is committed to being both a Jewish and a democratic state. • However, the state’s definition of “Jewishness” makes these two concepts mutually contradictory in some respects. • Israel inherited the millet system, which subjects citizens to two legal and judicial systems, which are separate and operate according to different, and even opposing, principles. • Judaism has been incorporated into legislation • Immigration laws like the “Law of Return” and “Law of Citizenship” are favorable to Jews, but discriminatory against the Palestinians who fled. • Some laws facilitate granting particularistic benefits only to Jewish citizens of the state - the Law on the Status of the World Zionist Org. and the Social Security Law (requires service in the IDF) (ex. of Consociational model) • Agreement between the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Lands Authority prevents the leasing of state lands (93% of territory within Green Line) to non-Jews

8. An Immigrant Settler Society In Search of Legitimacy • Israel was founded as an immigrant settler frontier state and is still an active immigrant society. • Engaged in a settlement and territorial expansion process down to present day • Continual presence of danger posed by surrounding Arab states. • Occupied vs. Administered Territories

9. Return to Zion • Zionism distances itself from the global colonial context. • Despite advocating immigration and resettlement • Emphasized the “Jewish Problem,” anti-Semitism, persecutions, and later the Holocaust. • Presented as the sole realistic and moral solution to these ills • Immigrants differed in ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds (ie “Western”

10. Return of Zion – Cont’d… • Constant existential threat to Zionism posed by international community, particularly Palestinian Arabs • “The Land of Israel” (ie. Palestine) chosen for ideological-religious reasons, not practical ones. • Religious ideas, symbols, and scriptures serve as the backdrop and justification for Israel’s existence. • Return to “Holy Land” provided collective redemption to Jews

11. Secularization of Nationalism • Zionism has two central goals: • Reconstruction or reinvention of Judaism as an essentially modern and secular movement, rather than a religious or civilization • Recruit and concentrate Jews within a territorial framework to enable the establishment of an independent political entity. • Contradictions and tensions led to a social order with semblance to democracy and theocracy.

12. Secular roots of Zionsim • Founders of the Zionism (ie. Theodore Herzl) originated from European intelligentsia. • Reflects secular, nationalist roots • Ideological commitments also contained elements of socialism and communism • Eurocentric & paralleled colonial movement

13. Religious Zionism • Jewish religious nationalists (ie. Religious Zionists) were marginal in the Jewish religious conscious ( viewed as “forcing an end”) • Religious worldview, however looked positively to ascent (aliyah) to the Holy Land

14. Orthodox Backlash • Zionist movement prompted political organization of the haredimto counter Zionism and secularization in the general political sphere. • AugudatYisrael (political party of ultra-orthodox) founded in Poland (1912) • Sought to exert role in political arena along with assimilators and secularizers

15. …And the Secularization of a Nation • Zionism adopted some central ingredients of the Jewish religion, but gave them different meanings and put them in a national context: • World Jewry in one single imaginary community • Targeted territory: Palestine • Religious symbols and holy tongue, Hewbrew, secularized and transformed into an everyday language. • Expropriation and historicization of the Bible provided rationale (ie. “chosen people,” “Holy Land”)

16. Toward an Atheistic Judaism? • First aliyah (ca. 1882-1900) to Palestine consisted of Russian and Romanian modern Orthodox Jews. • - Intended to establish religious agricultural communities (moshava) • Second and third aliyahimmigrants (ca. 1904-30) had a materialist social vision • Expressed active secularism as opposed to religious Judaism of their parents’ generation

17. The Pre-State Jewish Community • The absence of discourse on the specific character of the regime in Zionism: • More pressing issues at hand • Most thinkers, statesmen, and implementers of Zionism already had some form of image in mind • An effort to avoid inflaming prior tensions within the collectivity • A need arises for tools and rules for allocations of resources • Ben-Gurion’s letter to AgudatYisrael becomes cornerstone of political culture and church-state relations

18. Non-separation of State & Religion • The issue of defining Israel’s identity and the source of it’s legitimacy as an immigrant settler state • Major Supreme Court Rulings -The Case of Benjamin Shalit -The Case of Oswald Rufeisen • The Transfer of State Authority to Religious Institutions in areas of personal status.

19. Westernization and Statization • Western Bloc VS. Eastern Bloc? • Dominant political party of time defined themselves as socialists - Connection to American Jewry deemed too costly to part with • Finding Legitimization in a Postcolonial Age • Importance of Religious Interpretation of the State

20. The Limits of Democracy in Israel • Limitation of Halachic Rule • Limitation of Jewish Female Citizenship • Limitation of Israeli Citizenship • Ethnic Limitation • Limitation of the Israeli Control System