Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Waxman
Contributors ix
Series Editor’s Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Preface xix
Chaim I. Waxman
Part 1
Being a Religious Zionist in the Diaspora
1. Diaspora Religious Zionism: Some Current Reflections 3
Aharon Lichtenstein
2. Decline and Fall: Thoughts on Religious Zionism in America 31
Lawrence Grossman
Part 2
Interpreting History and Contemporary Events Theologically
3. Re-engaging Theology 57
Avraham Walfish
4. Religious Zionism and the Struggle Against
the Evacuation of the Settlements:
Theological and Cultural Aspects 93
Dov Schwartz
Introduction
The aim of this research is to describe the attitude of adolescents in
the state religious education system to the State of Israel after the
disengagement. It is too soon to come to definite conclusions, but
about eighteen months after the disengagement, it is interesting to
see how religious adolescents throughout the country reacted. The
159
The Study
The main questions that occupied the religious Zionist leadership,
prior to and after the implementation of the disengagement plan,
was what should their attitude be toward the State of Israel that has
taken such a political action. Is the State still legitimate? Can we, as
religious people, continue to cooperate with it? During the special
prayer for the country, can we pray for the government and wish
them success in what they are doing?
To find answers to these questions, I conducted a qualitative
research study among seventy-eight male religious Zionist adoles-
cents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three. In interviews,
Results
The interviews yielded five basic reactions, although sub-categories
and mixed categories were also found. The categories were indiffer-
ence, integration, separation, confrontation, and containment (one
who holds a religious messianic worldview but behaves according
to accepted norms). Excerpts from the interviews are presented
below.
Indifference
The largest group of adolescents said that the issue didn’t bother them
at all. When I asked, it took them few moments to answer, saying,
Separation
Another kind of reaction was found among very religious people
who saw the disengagement as betrayal by secular people or by the
State or by democracy. Democracy had become the enemy of reli-
gion and of religious people, and the conclusion was that they have
to exclude themselves from the state:
Jews, especially leftists. Rabbi Tal claims that at this time, which
is the time of redemption, the evil forces rise up to fight sanctity
(kedusha). Tal claims that the evil forces of the world are the leftists
who act against sanctity. Therefore, it is permitted to hate them. The
impact of this manuscript on some of the religious Zionist youth is
apparent in a blog by Reut on the Katif.net website:
Confrontation
Some of the adolescents believed that the religious community
needed to take over the country, and not necessarily in a democratic
fashion.
Integration
Other adolescents expressed the belief that the religious community
had itself disengaged from Israeli society. They felt that the religious
should “settle in the hearts” of the general population in order to
change the situation for the good of the State.
Containment
Some of the interviewees, though they opposed the deportation and
viewed it as immoral, actively participated in it. They walk a thin line.
Democracy and the law are top priorities. They sing Hatikva [the
national anthem], raise the flag, obey the law, and view army service
as a supreme value, yet are critical of them. They live in permanent
cognitive dissonance.
The Teachers
All the teachers I interviewed told me that they tried to raise the
issue in their classes during homeroom lessons, but to their amaze-
ment, the pupils didn’t cooperate or participate, so they had to move
on to another topic. This was the case in high schools and yeshivot
throughout the country, except for few schools connected to the
Noam network. The teachers said that only those students who
actively participated in the resistance (shababniks) took part in the
discussions, and the rest were not interested. Below is a sample of
the teachers’ responses.
Discussion
The aim of this research was to determine the attitude of religious
adolescent graduates of state religious education in Israel to the
disengagement and to see whether the disengagement changed their
attitudes to the State of Israel. Five different reactions were elicited.
Most of the interviewees were indifferent toward the disengagement
and did not rethink their relationship with the State. Fewer took the
position of integration, fewer still of separation and confrontation,
and only three of the interviewees took the position of containment.
The fact that there is such a range of reactions implies that gradu-
ates of SRE represent many facets of Religious Zionism, rather than
one monolithic voice. Whereas the haredi community separates
the State from the Land of Israel and treats the State in a func-
tional manner, the religious Zionists combine them; they attribute
with love so that gradually they will settle in the hearts of the Israeli
citizens and change the State. The container doubts if the state can
be part of an identity discourse or whether it should be part of a
discourse on rights.
Y. Liebman lists four strategies for dealing with modernity:
Rejection, adaptation, compartmentalization and expansion.10 This
typology was not enough to describe the population in relation
to the research question; however, some aspects of it are relevant.
Those who favored separation use Liebman’s rejection strategy. Lie-
bman claims that this characterizes the ultra-orthodox movement.
The separatists can be defined as new nationalist ultra-orthodox.
Some of them use compartmentalization mechanisms where they
differentiate between the State as a religious entity and as an instru-
mental function to be used for existential needs. The same reaction
was found among some of the integration types. The confrontation
type is characterized by Liebman’s expansion strategy; namely, the
religious conviction is expanded to every part of life. Thus, their
confrontation is seen as part of their religious commitment. The
adaptation strategy, namely those who adjust themselves to mo-
dernity, was not used explicitly in this sample, although among the
indifferent types it was implied in a few cases. The containment type
is not represented at all in Liebman’s typology and that is perhaps a
sign of Ziestgiest where religious Zionistic education and society is
torn between a dogmatic, monolithic one-dimensional ideology,11
aiming at rapid social and ideological differentiation,12 due to the
inevitable exposure of its graduates to post-modernist ideas.
The three strategies of confrontation, integration and contain-
ment can be explained through Rand’s13 triadic model, which is
based on Fromm’s theory,14 to have and to be. The three options
can be explained with the theoretical paradigm that deals with the
manner in which people define their identity along dimensions that
can predict their behavior in the realms of education, employment,
human relations and a variety of everyday life situations. Fromm
claims that beyond the endless variety that can characterize human
behavior, the individual manifests great consistency regarding the
way in which he reacts to his external and internal worlds. The ways
himself and impose his messianic vision upon the State. In contrast,
the messianic ideology of a person characterized by the containment
strategy (the Being MOE) is the acquisition of ideological knowledge
for the sake of enriching his inner self so that he can reach a higher
and more varied level. He uses the messianic vision as a general
guideline to help him cope with the cognitive dissonance he faces
in its positive post-modernist meaning. The person with the engage-
ment strategy (the Doing MOE) tends to turn his knowledge mainly
into a tool for accomplishing his tasks more effectively. For this
type of person, the acquisition of messianic knowledge provides
him with the means for doing things in a better and more efficient
way in the framework of his effort to alter his surroundings and the
society in which he lives and operates. The messianic knowledge is
turned into practical human actions. Both the confrontation and
the integration types translate the Messianic vision into a practi-
cal mode. However, while the confronter sees the messianic vision
as an end, the integrator sees it as a means. For the integrator, the
end does not justify all the means; he sees the redemption as a long
linear path. For the confronter, the end justifies the means and the
main thing is to gain control now in order to save the Land of Israel
from devastation.
The findings can also be analyzed from the perspectives of time,
place, and language.
Time
Time is a fundamental dimension in this context. The participants
live in a non-realistic time orientation (eternity).18 From a psycho-
logical point of view, this may endanger the coherence of their ego
identity, because the dilemma between actual and vague time is a key
issue in the construction of the healthy “self.”19 From the theological
point of view, the vague time is the traditional redemption which
will come about in a time “which is not a day and not a night.”
The fact that for the interviewees, the only meaningful time
perspective is the future, implies that they are committed to long-
term goals rather than to short-term purposes. Hence, the rejection
of the peace process and peace education is regarded as part of the
rejection of the here and now in favor of the perpetual future. The
peace process implies the withdrawal from perpetual values in favor
of temporal ends. It is connected to hedonism and secular consider-
ations rather than to altruistic, religious, eternal values.
Lamm distinguishes between goals that can be achieved and
goals that will never be achieved.20 Goals that can be achieved are
rational goals. According to Lamm, one of the main differences
between political and ideological education is that political educa-
tion deals with rational, attainable goals, whereas ideological edu-
cation deals with utopian, unreachable goals. The aim of political
education is to provide the students with means that enable them
to expose the interests that lie behind the goals. In this case study,
many participants reject rationalistic goals and prefer to stick to
Messianic goals, whereby they have different time perspectives and
irrational horizons.
Place
The second dimension is place. Do the interviewees relate to a
real place or to a visionary-mystical place?21 Schwartz claims that
throughout Jewish history, Jews walked a fine line between fact
and fiction concerning the land of Israel as an integral part of
their existentiality.22 The conquest of the sacred historical sites in
Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem during the Six-Day War in 1967
was considered a theological change rather than a political one.23 The
political outcome of the war was regarded as compatible with the
original messianic worldview. The victory was a sign from God that
ushered in the messianic age. The beginning of the peace process
in 1978 was seen as a retreat from this messianic vision and led to
a split between the dream and reality, and consequently, religious
confusion. The interviewees of the separatist, confrontational, and
integrative stances did not view the Gaza Strip as a dangerous place
because of its religious significance. In their eyes, the peace process
was not part of an international agreement between nations but
rather a theological war against God and his commandments.
Silberman-Keller,24 following Lamm25 and Sholem,26 writes
that one of the ways to combine eternity and history is mystifica-
Language
The discourse that developed in religious Zionist society since 1967,
especially among the settlers, included the shaping of a new kind
of (ahistorical) language with clearly marked idioms. The correla-
tion between language and identity has been examined extensively.
Although language as a communicative tool must strive for univer-
sality, it also includes deeper layers that reflect beliefs, emotions
and personal preferences, enabling identification of the speakers’
personal or group characteristics.31 Foucault claims that text, im-
ages, emphases and frames of reference in discourse are reflections
of social structures and institutions of a political and ideological
culture and especially of the power relations originating therein.32
Peleg maintains that words form connections and combinations
among people for purposes of social dynamics and arrangements,
enabling discourse to reinforce existing social structures or spur the
construction of new ones.33 Ahituv notes that religious language
is simultaneously reflective and formative, reflecting the possible
worlds embodied in it, while building the common world of its
speakers.34 Some of its words and the behavior patterns thereby
engendered become codes of identification and represent identities.35
A similar process occurred in religious Zionist society’s treatment of
the peace process. The Six-Day War altered territorial demarcation,
differentiating between the boundaries of Israel’s control and those
The ideal type, in my eyes, for state religious education, is the con-
tainment type. The fact that most of the religious Zionist population
is indifferent to the story of the disengagement can be interpreted
as a sign that religious Zionism is sectorial; each group cares only
for his own select group.
A religious Zionist website called “Kippa” reported that on
the anniversary of the Amona riots, all the internal dapei parashat
hashavua (weekly Torah newsletters) wrote about Amona and the
Gush Katif story except for those distributed in the center of the
country. The fact that they ignored such a central issue reflects the
indifference of the center of the country to the story of Gush Katif.
The fact that this fundamental issue was also not dealt with in the
modern orthodox rabbi) stood up and protested. The fact that Basi
was banished from his kibbutz was interpreted in the mainstream
as a punishment from God. He banished innocent people now he
was banished.
This is another indication that religious Zionism cannot hold
different ideas.41 The fact that religious Zionism cannot hold politi-
cal leftist ideas creates many unvoiced voices and that is extremely
problematic from the point of view of socialization. The main prob-
lem of SRE is that it cannot accept other opinions. Another facet of
this issue is the surprising large number of adolescents in this study
who were indifferent to the story of the disengagement after it took
place. This may be the direct result of the fact that it was a non-issue
within SRE. On the other hand, the discourse that was represented in
this research by the separatists, the confronters and the integrators
was also attributed by the participants to their education in the SRE
system. It seems that the SRE system was torn by two opposite forces.
The tendency not to react because they did not have the educational
tools to cope with the situation, or when holding a discussion, to use
essentialist one-dimensional discourse based mainly on a messianic
vision, interpreted into action.
The fact that SRE educates to one specific ideal type42 and does
not encourage systematic exploration as a legitimate educational
process43 is what Bar-Lev, Leslau and Neeman44 claim is one of
the main reasons for the high rate of religious drop-outs (Hazara
Beshela). This monolithic approach left the SRE almost without tools
to confront with the issue of the disengagement. There was a rumor
that the disengagement caused a great crisis among state religious
education graduates and adolescents. But this study indicates the
opposite. A majority of graduates claimed that, practically speaking,
the disengagement didn’t cause any fundamental crisis; according
to teachers and students, it was a non-issue in the classrooms after
the disengagement. This has far-reaching implications.
In a recent poll conducted on the katif.net website concern-
ing dedicating a special day to memorialize Gush Katif, only 53
percent said it was a good idea, 27 percent said that every teacher
should decide on his own, and 20 percent said it is irrelevant. These
findings are amazing when you take into account that the website
is run by Gush Katif settlers and their supporters. There were huge
advertisements in the newspapers asking teachers to dedicate the
22nd of Shvat to the memory of Gush Katif. It will be extremely
interesting to check how many schools in the center of the country
will participate in this initiative.
It should be emphasized that there was a difference between
the attitude of the adolescents to the disengagement and to the ri-
ots in Amona. The riots in Amona were more significant for those
who participated there, but this requires a different paper. However,
among those adolescents who actively participated in the struggle
against the disengagement, there were basic two reactions: among
the separatists, there was an increasing tendency to postpone or
avoid the army service. Some of them told me explicitly that they
doubted that they would go to the army unless forced to by their
parents or others. The confrontational types were also split into two
groups: those who said that the solution is to postpone the army
service for a later stage until the nation understands that we are
needed and begs us to take the lead; and those who wanted to go to
the army and excel there in order to be able to “capture” key posi-
tions in the army and in the State, and conquer the State of Israel by
force. Among the integrators, there were also two groups (minimal
effort and maximal effort). Almost all of them went, or planned to
go, to the army but one group said that the disengagement was a real
trauma and that they would invest the least possible effort in their
military service, not go to the dangerous and prestigious combat
units as they once would have, and not to become officers. However,
others of this type said that the disengagement was proof that there
should be a change in the Israeli consciousness and this could only
be done from within. Their conclusion was that they should go to
the army, be more engaged with the secular population through
the army, and settle in the hearts of the people. They felt they had
to strive for top positions and excellence in order to change the
worldview of Israeli society willingly.
There are different ways to cope with conflict. The indiffer-
ent and the separatists ignore the conflict. The confrontation and
Notes
1. Z. Gross, “State-Religious Education in Israel: Between Tradition and modernity,”
Prospects 33(2) (2003): 149–164.
2. M. Bar-Lev, Graduates of the Yeshiva High Schools in Israel: Between Tradition
and Renewal [Hebrew], Unpublished doctoral dissertation (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan
University, 1977). See also M. Bar-Lev and Y.J. Katz, “State-Religious Education in
Israel: A Unique Ideological System,” Panorama 3(2) (1991): 94–105.
3. S. Adler, Challenges in 2003. Circular for the Religious Principal [Hebrew], Ministry
of Education and Culture, Religious Division (Jerusalem, 2002): 6–13. See also