Orthodox Judaism and the Politics of Religion: From Prewar Europe to the State of Israel by Daniel Mahla (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Orthodox Judaism and the Politics of Religion: From Prewar Europe to the State of Israel by Daniel Mahla Kimmy Caplan Daniel Mahla. Orthodox Judaism and the Politics of Religion: From Prewar Europe to the State of Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. xvi + 306 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000325 The Haredi Agudat Yisrael (AY) and the Religious Zionist Mizrahi political movements, both associated with Jewish Orthodoxy, have received considerable scholarly attention over the past few decades. Book-length studies, edited volumes, master's and doctoral theses, and articles are devoted to each of them. This cumulative knowledge relates to a wide range of topics, including specific developments, processes, and episodes; these movements' respective ideological and theological platforms; various organizational, institutional, and economic infrastructures; and biographical sketches of their spiritual and political leaders. Some of these studies relate to the complex and tenuous relationships between these two rival movements, but in many cases do so in passing; in other studies this topic is overlooked or underestimated. In this volume based on a PhD dissertation, Daniel Mahla is therefore revisiting a scene that is not terra incognita, and does so forcefully, thoroughly, and systematically, with an important grain of sensitivity. The thrust of Mahla's persuasive argument is that the complex relationship between AY and Mizrahi, characterized primarily by struggles, encounters, rivalries, tensions, and competition, is crucial to understanding the "DNA" of these two religious-oriented political movements. In addition, he argues that these internal relationships are no less important, and at times more so, than those that they held with the nonreligious Jewish and Zionist movements, and are crucial to understanding how they shaped themselves and acted. This aspect must be added to the surrounding environment and contexts, which also clearly influenced the relationship between these two movements. In addition, Mahla submits that the core difference between these two movements is not solely their respective approaches toward and dealings with the Zionist movement, as certain scholars have suggested, but evolves around two pivotal issues: rabbinic authority and political activism. Exploring the internal relationships between different and competing Orthodox movements in the first half of the twentieth century demands several skills, and these come to the fore in this study. First and foremost, Mahla's rather unique command of languages enables him to utilize primary sources in English, Hebrew, German, and Yiddish. Second, it requires the ability to analyze rhetoric that is based upon a rich exposure and intuitive knowledge of classical Jewish sources. Third, Mahla demonstrates a command of the existing scholarship. Based upon a wide array of primary sources, including protocols, letters, and additional archival sources, memoirs, and the press, Mahla documents and contextualizes the relationships between AY and Mizrahi throughout most of the first half of the twentieth century, in chronological order. Following the introduction that sets the stage, each chapter is devoted to a specific period. The chapters begin with a strong focus on the European scene, where these movements were established, and gradually the focus shifts to Palestine. [End Page 480] The first chapter is devoted to Orthodox social and political activism, a phenomenon that is already well documented in several studies that focus on Orthodoxy in other European Jewish scenes. Mahla illustrates this originally by analyzing Haredi and religious Zionist encyclopedias and collective biographies of personalities in these camps, while also accounting for their anachronistic nature. In the second chapter, which traces the founding of AY and Mizrahi, one can sense the seeds of the complex love-hate relationship between these two movements, as well as the desire to unite forces, that will accompany them for decades to come. In the third chapter, devoted to the struggles and competition between these movements in interwar Poland, as well as the rhetoric that accompanied them, Mahla's main point is that the issue at stake was power, control, and followers in Poland, whereas Zionism and dealings with the Zionist movement primarily served local interests. The fourth chapter shifts the focus to the Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine, and in this context the Zionist movement is a major factor that impacts the relationships between AY and Mizrahi. According to Mahla, talks and potential cooperation between AY and...