In Search of Identity: Jewish Aspects in Israeli Culture (review)

Abstract

In Search of Identity: Jewish Aspects in Israeli CultureIt is a pleasure to recommend In Search of Identity to readers of Shofar. Dan Urian and Efraim Karsh have assembled a collection of thought-provoking essays by leading academics on issue of how and in what way Israel is Jewish. editors introduce themes of this book by sketching cultural history of State of Israel. Their concern with history is echoed by some of authors of consequent chapters who are careful to spell out distinct outlooks of different generations of Israelis. Another connecting thread is openness with which authors disclose their own opinions and hopes concerning Israel's Jewish identity. Noting increased salience of subcultures in Israeli society in aftermath of Six-Day War, editors diagnose current cultural landscape as postmodern, a situation in which one can turn to neither tradition nor ideology for guidance (p. 4). Other authors also share their assessment of Israeli society, and thus as I span arc of fifteen chapters in this volume I am introduced to a variety of provocative opinions alongside sound analysis.In Search of Identity is divided into three parts, Cultural Tension, The Jewishness of Israeli Identity, and Artistic Representations of Jewish contributors to first part, Cultural Tension, describe a culture war between and orthodox Jews. Eliezer Shweid opens discussion by exploring wide gulf that separates two warring camps. He concludes his essay, titled in Israeli Culture, by expressing his hope that despite drive to follow Western fashion, Israeli society may seek protection against an assimilating world culture by preserving its Jewish national and cultural identity (p. 28).In Secular Judaism and Its Prospects, Charles Liebman is critical of tendency to allow religious elite to define Judaism. Writing from a social scientist's perspective and drawing in part on reports from Guttman and Carmel Institutes, he explores secular Judaism, or culture of the vast majority of Israeli Jews (p. 34). He opines that in absence of research on how Israelis celebrate rites of passage, very little can be said about salience of Jewish heritage in Israeli society.In Between Hegemony and Dormant Kulturkampf in Israel, Baruch Kimmerling provides a fascinating analysis of place of religious symbols in Zionist hegemony. Several upheavals, including rise of Likud Party to power in 1977 and 1982 Lebanon War, quickened emergence of countercultures that challenged Zionist hegemony. Kimmerling identifies three Jewish countercultures: religious, secular, and traditionalist, as well as an Israeli-Arab counterculture.In Shall We Find Sufficient Strength? On Behalf of Israeli Secularism, Gershon Shaked argues that best works of Hebrew literature were produced in an environment where there was much tension between ghetto culture and pressures of assimilation. He notes that many religious holidays were transformed to become part of Israeli culture, a trend that is, in part, informed by a rejection of both ghetto and Western culture. He concludes by asserting that Israeli secularism is legitimate and has a right to blossom.Dan Miron's Between Rabbi Shach and Modern Hebrew Literature is fifth and last of chapters that make up first part of this book. Miron takes a hard look at Rabbi Shach's profound dislike of kibbutzim. Rabbi hates kibbutzim because they pretend to perpetuate Judaism while at same time abandoning God and transferring core of matter...to land [of Israel] and its control (p. 92). Had other authors taken Miron's tone and approach, this first part of book should not have been titled Cultural Tension, but rather, Culture War and Enmity.The second part of book is titled The Jewishness of Israeli Identity. …