Selective observance as a component of Jewish identity in contemporary Israeli society

Abstract

Of all the intergroup conflicts in Israeli Jewish society, the most acute social problem is constituted by relationships between religious and non-religious Jews. At the same time, the findings of comprehensive research carried out in the early 1990s into the religious behavior of the Jewish population in Israel indicate that Israeli Jews do feel a commitment to Jewish continuity and to the Jewish character of Israeli society, even if they selectively—but systematically—orient their patterns of observing tradition. Thus some traditions are kept or marked by many, while others—in particular those relating to the “proscriptive” precepts of the Sabbath—are not observed by the majority and produce a rift among Israeli Jews. This article discusses and analyzes the nature of the selective observance of tradition in Israel as a component of the Jewish identity of Israeli Jews, and in particular of those Jews who are not religious. Although there is a general consensus mat Israel should have a Jewish character, on the one hand there is resistance to religious coercion, and on the other hand, formulation has not yet occurred of Jewish attributes of a “Jewish State” which is not necessarily religious, apart from selective secularization of religious symbols.