Identity is the way individuals and groups of people define themselves vis-à-vis others. Professor Yedidia Z. Stern explains that Jewish identity, like many others, is made up of religious, national, social, and cultural elements. Previously, these elements were fully integrated, but two major changes in modern Jewish history have disrupted that integration. The first is the secularization of Judaism. For more than two centuries, being religious has ceased to be important for a significant group of the Jewish people. The second change is the State of Israel. For the first time, the Jewish people are a majority in a place where Jewish politics are discussed, people serve in a Jewish army, live within a Jewish legal system, and all of this occurs within a Jewish public space.

But Professor Stern points out that Israeli society, and the Jewish people in general, are experiencing a kind of cultural dualism. On the one hand, there is traditional Jewish culture, based primarily on religion, and on the other, there is the secular liberal identity, defined by national, social, and cultural factors. Israeli President Reuben Rivlin, in a famous speech he gave in June 2015, commented that Israeli Jewish society is divided into three main groups: the ultra-Orthodox, the Religious Zionists, and the secularists. Stern says that each of them has chosen a different path to resolve the problem of cultural dualism, although all share, to a greater or lesser degree, elements of both cultures.

The ultra-Orthodox group has opted for the religious component of traditional Jewish culture, and therefore seeks to isolate themselves from the secular society that surrounds them, as they constitute «God’s little domain on Earth» and do not want any integration with other groups. However, this isolation is relative, as they live within a secular society and take advantage of what that society offers, although they minimize their participation in it. On the contrary, secularists have opted for Western liberal culture and have abandoned the ancient Jewish traditions, which are absent in their education, their art, their philosophy, and in general, in all aspects of their lives. Nevertheless, secularists experience their Judaism by speaking Hebrew, using the Jewish calendar, commemorating the holidays in their own way, etc.

The third group, the religious Zionists, function in both cultures, but without blending them. When it comes to education, studying Torah, or discussing philosophical problems, they are in traditional Jewish culture. When it comes to learning a trade, working, going to a show or the market, they are in secular culture. Their identity functions in both cultures without integrating them.

President Rivlin failed to mention a fourth group who, although small, are the only ones who have managed to merge the two cultures. They are traditionalist Jews who celebrate the holidays without being observant and who enjoy non-religious Jewish culture. Liberal movements such as Conservative and Reform Judaism belong to this group. Can one survive as a Jew being only secular or only religious? It seems not, since in reality, no group is 100% secular or 100% religious.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Yedidia Z. Stern: Religion, State, and the Jewish Identity Crisis in Israel.