Eliezer Schweid on the Religious Dimension of a Secular Jewish Renewal

One of the most significant cultural trends in Israeli society is the resurgence of interest in Jewish texts among circles of secular Jews. The return of secular Jews to the Jewish bookshelf began in the mid-1970s as part of the cultural reconfiguration that followed the Yom Kippur War. It has accelerated, however, in the last fifteen years, particularly since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, producing numerous initiatives and institutions involving joint secular–religious study of Jewish texts and independent secular engagement with traditional sources.1 It has grown to the extent that it has been characterized as a fourth stream within the cultural and social constellation of Israeli society.2 The educational and cultural efforts of this movement are directed at counteracting the increasing alienation of segments of the secular Zionist population to Jewish sources and the growing divide between religious and secular Zionists, as each camp is increasingly identified with a conflicting political position. The secular educators, ideologues, and thinkers leading this cultural renaissance aver that a robust secular Zionism must be grounded in a renewed interest in Jewish cultural creativity and repairing religious-secular relations necessitates fostering a shared cultural language. On the one hand, this cultural-educational phenomenon has its roots in conventional Zionist assumptions: cultural Zionism since Ahad Haam has advocated secular engagement with the Jewish textual tradition and the forging of ties with religious Zionists. But, on the other hand, it breaks with classical patterns of secular Zionism. Unlike most previous manifestations of cultural Zionism, the current secular cultural renaissance attends to the religious dimensions of the tradition and not just its national and cultural aspects

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• Teshuvah baskets’ in the Israeli teshuvah market

  Asaf Sharabi•Culture and Religion•2012

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