Israel and Religious Liberty

Abstract

Grave concern is often expressed in Israel and abroad over the indifference shown toward religion in Israel today. This in difference, which sometimes develops into open hostility, is re vealed in the scorn that the young Israeli exhibits toward ancient religious forms and practice, in the popular feeling that Orthodox Judaism is failing to speak in a relevant manner to the needs of a people living in the twentieth century, and in the complaints of Israelis that their religious leaders are more concerned with political activity than with the affairs of their congregations. Opposition to religion in Israel is not focused upon religion per se, but upon the attempt by Orthodox leaders to create a Torah state. The majority insists that Israel is committed to the principles of democracy, and resentment is strong when the Orth odox, who wield a political influence far out of proportion to their numerical strength, attempt to enact religious legislation that forces all citizens into a prescribed religious mold. Most Israelis reject the idea of a theocratic state; consequently they oppose religious leadership as it seeks to create one. While Orthodox activists are quick to accuse their opponents of being antireligious, such is not the case. Those holding a secular approach to state hood are often sincere seekers of truth and are the staunchest ad vocates of religious liberty. Today there are three chief barriers to the realization of re ligious liberty in Israel. Two will be discussed briefly at this point and the third examined more fully in its various manifesta tions in Israeli life. First, the theocratic approach to statehood, so dear to the Orthodox, is undergirded by the existence of the millet system. Israel inherited this medieval system of grouping the various religio-cultural elements into tightly restricted communities from the British, who in turn fell heir to it from the Ottoman Turks. The Turks adopted it with few changes from the Prophet Mu hammad and his successors who employed the millet system as a useful tool for dealing with their thorny minority problems dur ing their rapid conquest of the Middle East in the seventh and