State and Religion in Israel
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10072896 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Amnon Rubinstein (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1967 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 107-121 |
| Publication date | 1967-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/002200946700200409 |
| OpenAlex | W2000219056 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
Israel is a country in which even simple matters become complicated. It is not surprising, therefore, that the relationship between state and religion has acquired a degree of complexity which baffles even those familiar with the local scene. The complexity is caused by three different and unrelated factors: (a) the nature of Judaism, the Jewish religion and, consequently, of Israel as a Jewish state; (b) the political system prevailing in Israel, which gave rise to an influential Jewish religious block; (c) the legal system governing personal status. The Jewish people combine an ethnic identity with a common religious tradition; religion could not be simply divorced from the ethnic factor. The experience of the individual Jew who forsakes his religion but nevertheless remains Jewish by instinct, could hardly be applied to all Jews, as an ethnic entity. The very unity of different communities, scattered the world over, was based, at least historically, on a common religious belief. The most dramatic demonstration of that sense of unity came to Jews in different countries every Passover, when, seated at festive tables laid according to tradition, they repeated the same ancient Hebrew text, ending in a prayer to be the following year in Jerusalem. That this yearning for homeland, for a return to Zion, had a religious origin, is beyond dispute. The very claim to establish a Jewish state in Palestine was corroborated by a Divine promise and by a long tradition of religious teaching and prayers. Yet out of this common faith, out of this religious bond, grew a common fate which gave a new sense to Judaism. Jews became united not only by their religion but also by a sense of unique isolation, periodically accentuated by outbursts of active antisemitism. It was on this sense of shared persecution, made more bitter by frustrated attempts at assimilation, that Zionism grew. It was possible to think of the Jewish people as a secular, nonreligious entity. Indeed, the mainstream of Zionism tried to introduce an element of normalcy into an abnormal situation, the norm
Ancient history · Political science · State (computer science · Computer Science · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2021 (38) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |