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Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Today, differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesized in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another major difference is the two religions' coneptions of God. The Christian God consists of three persons of one essence, with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. Judaism emphasizes the Oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible as part of its scriptural canon, Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.
Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Israelites, their ancestors. It encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization.
"Who is a Jew?" is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, genealogical, and personal dimensions. Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism follow Jewish law (Halakha), deeming people to be Jewish if their mothers are Jewish or if they underwent a halakhic conversion. Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent as well as conversion. Karaite Judaism predominantly follows patrilineal descent as well as conversion.
Shlomo Moshe Amar is the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He served in the position of Rishon LeZion from 2003 to 2013; his Ashkenazi counterpart during his tenure was Yona Metzger. Since 2014, he currently serves as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
Religion in Israel is manifested primarily in Judaism, the ethnic religion of the Jewish people. The State of Israel declares itself as a "Jewish and democratic state" and is the only country in the world with a Jewish-majority population. Other faiths in the country include Islam, Christianity and the religion of the Druze people. Religion plays a central role in national and civil life, and almost all Israeli citizens are automatically registered as members of the state's 14 official religious communities, which exercise control over several matters of personal status, especially marriage. These recognized communities are Orthodox Judaism, Islam, the Druze faith, the Roman, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Greek Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Anglican churches, and the Baháʼí Faith.
Yaaqov Medan is an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, co-Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, a respected leader in the Religious-Zionist community, and a lecturer in Tanakh, Gemara, and Jewish philosophy.
Same-sex marriage is not legal in Israel. The government has registered same-sex marriages performed abroad for some purposes since 2006. However, marriages performed in Israel are only available from one of the 15 religious marriage courts recognized by the state, none of which permit same-sex marriage under their respective auspices. Consequently, Israelis who desire to have their same-sex marriage recognized by the government must first marry outside Israel, in a jurisdiction where such marriages are legal, and then register upon returning home.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Israel. Capital punishment has only been imposed twice in the history of the state and is only to be handed out for treason, genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people during wartime. Israel is one of seven countries that has abolished capital punishment for "ordinary crimes only."
Abortion in Israel is permitted when determined by a termination committee, with the vast majority of cases being approved as of 2019. The rate of abortion in Israel has steadily declined since 1988, and compared to the rest of the world, abortion rates in Israel are moderate. According to government data, in Israel, abortion rates in 2016 dropped steadily to 9 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, lower than England (16.2) and the United States (13.2). 99% of abortions are carried out in the first trimester. Despite allegations of permitting abortion under limited circumstances, Haaretz noted in 2019 that this is not the case and abortion is almost always permitted in Israel.
Ruth Gavison was an Israeli expert of human rights, professor of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and recipient of the Israel Prize.
Israel Democracy Institute, established in 1991, is an independent center of research and action dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy. It is located in Jerusalem, Israel.
Marriage in Israel can be performed only under the auspices of the religious community to which couples belong, and inter-faith marriages performed within the country are not legally recognized. Matrimonial law is based on the millet or confessional community system which had been employed in the Ottoman Empire, including what is now Israel, was not modified during the British Mandate of the region, and remains in force in the State of Israel.
In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the nation-state and sovereign homeland of the Jewish people.
David Rotem was an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2007 and 2015.
Secularism in Israel shows how matters of religion and how matters of state are related within Israel. Secularism is defined as an indifference to, rejection, or exclusion of religion and religious consideration. In Israel, this applies to the entirely secular community that identifies with no religion and the secular community within the Jewish community. When Israel was established as a new state in 1948, a new and different Jewish identity formed for the newly created Israeli population. This population was defined by the Israeli culture and Hebrew language, their experience with the Holocaust, and the need to band together against conflict with hostile neighbors in the Middle East.
Israeli Druze or Druze Israelis are an ethnoreligious minority among the Arab citizens of Israel. In 2019, there were 143,000 Druze people living within Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, comprising 1.6% of the total population of both the former and the latter. Although Druzism, their ethnic religion, originally developed out of Ismaʿilism, Druze do not identify as Muslims. In 1957, the Israeli government designated Druze Israelis as a distinct ethnic community at the request of Druze communal leaders. Alongside the Jewish majority and the Circassian minority, the Druze minority is required by law to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, and members of the community have also attained top positions in Israeli politics and public service. Before the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Druze people were not recognized as a religious community, and were discriminated against by the local judicial system. Druze Israelis are native Arabic-speakers; a 2017 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center reported that the majority of Israel's Druze ethnically identify as Arabs. Israel has the world's third-largest Druze population, after Syria and Lebanon; the majority of Druze Israelis are concentrated in northern Israel.
Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, informally known as the Nation-State Bill or the Nationality Bill, is an Israeli Basic Law which specifies the nature of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The law was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018, and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature. However, it was met with sharp criticism internationally, including from several prominent Jewish American organizations, and has been branded as racist and undemocratic by some critics.
Bezalel Yoel Smotrich is an Israeli lawyer and far-right politician. The leader of the Religious Zionist Party, he previously served as a Knesset member for Yamina. He is a resident of Kedumim in the Israeli settlements, which are deemed illegal under international law, in a house within the Israeli occupied territories of the West Bank that was also built illegally outside of the settlement proper.
Debate has occurred throughout Asia over proposals to legalize same-sex marriage as well as civil unions.
The New Right is a right-wing political party in Israel, established in December 2018 by Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett. The New Right aims to be a right-wing party open to both religious and secular people. The party did not win any seats in the April 2019 election, though it won three seats in the subsequent election of September 2019, retained these in the March 2020 election and increased to seven seats in the 2021 Israeli legislative election. It is currently the sole member of the Yamina alliance.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "FAQ". אמנת גביזון-מדן (in Hebrew). 24 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
- ↑ "Contesting Shabbat bill proposals to be raised by coalition". Ynetnews. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
- ↑ "'Through secular-religious dialogue, all problems can be solved'". Arutz Sheva . 3 February 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ↑ Harkov, Lahav (6 January 2019). "How Bennett, Shaked will distinguish themselves from Likud, Bayit Yehudi". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 9 June 2019.