6 The Reform and Conservative Movements in Israel: Strategies of Peripheral Movements in a Monopolized Religious Market

Abstract

Entering the Israeli market of religion in the 1970s as foreign movements, the Reform and Conservative movements have since struggled to diversify the supply of religion and obtain a market share. This chapter focuses more on the social and cultural issues related to the struggle of these movements as peripheral suppliers of religion seeking to penetrate the market and obtain a market share. It also focuses on how the leadership of the Reform and Conservative movements assess their market share in Israel, whom they identify as their target population, and the marketing strategies employed to sell their product. The chapter elaborates on previous work on these movements in Israel, and offers a more in-depth look at the mechanisms by which these movements are creating an alternative supply of religion, and producing grass-roots changes, both in the way some Israelis perceive religious life, and how they affiliate with it. Keywords: Israeli religious market; market share; peripheral movements; reform and conservative movements; religious life; target population