Irreligion in Israel

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Irreligion in Israel is difficult to measure. Though Israeli Jewish society is highly secularized when compared to the rest of the Middle East, the importance of religion in state life leaves little room for total disengagement from it. Some 20% of Israeli Jews do not believe in a deity, and some 15% claim to observe no religious practices. Israeli Arab society is much more religious, with any degree of secularity barely acknowledged.

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Definitions and statistics

Measurement of religiosity or the lack thereof are particularly complex in the Israeli context. Religion plays a central part in national and social identity; Israelis are involuntarily registered as members of the state's fourteen recognized autonomous faith communities, which exercise control over marriage, burial and other matters. [1] Society is clearly divided along ethno-religious lines. Even subjectively, when polled, hardly anyone identifies as having no religion. [2]

Some 4.5% of the populace are "religiously unclassified", a legal status conferred upon anyone (including Karaites, Buddhists, and other faith groups) who is not a member of a recognized religion. [3] Many of the "unclassified" are Russian Orthodox Christian immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who arrived under the Law of Return and did not register their faith. [4] A small number of Jewish notables, spearheaded by author Yoram Kaniuk in May 2011, successfully petitioned courts for having their religious status changed from "Jewish" to "unclassified", citing antipathy towards the rabbinic establishment and the wish to be free from its control. [5] Religious courts retain a right of veto over the newly "unclassified". [6]

Among Israel's Jewish populace, only 20% or so identify as "religious", a figure which, misleadingly, sometimes places the country at the top of global irreligion surveys. [7] However, being "religious" implies strict observance of Orthodox ritual law. The other 80% identify as either Masortim , "traditional" (30–40%), or Hilonim , "secular" (40–50%). Almost all the "traditional" and many of the "secular" both affirm various religious beliefs and practice a considerable array of Jewish rituals. Indeed, scholars argued that "secular" is problematic in translation [8] (likewise, though hostility toward the state rabbinate is ubiquitous, secularism in the common sense of advocating separation of church and state is rather rare in the country). [9] Professor Yoav Peled preferred to render Hiloni – 60% of whom believe in God, according to polls, and 25% affirm that He literally revealed the Law at Sinai – as "nonobservant". [10]

Emphasizing the superiority of practice to faith in Judaism, Israeli social scientists measure secularity and religiosity in terms of the rigour of observance, not beliefs. The Guttman Center, running the most thorough survey of Jewish-Israeli religious attitudes, employs the category of "totally nonobservant" to identify the completely secular. In 2009, 16% of respondents identified as such. Owing to the prevalence of practices like selective dietary purity or fixing a doorpost amulet, and their amalgamation into Israeli ordinary lifestyle without an overt religious connotation, many of the "totally nonobservant" actually perform not a few of these. In the 1999 Guttman survey, while 21% stated they are "totally nonobservant", only 7% did not practice any of the ten common ritual behaviours studied. [11] [10] Utter personal secularity of the Western sort is very rare. [12]

Concerning the existence of a deity, the results of four major polls, conducted between 2009 and 2019, imply that some 20% of Jewish Israelis do not believe in God: 11% "sometimes think God exists" and 9% are convinced atheists. [13] Regarding other supernatural notions, 28% of respondents to the Guttman 2009 survey denied efficacy to prayer, 33% did not believe that the Jews are a chosen people, 35% did not affirm that the Law and the precepts are God-given, 44% rejected the notions of a World to Come and afterlife, and 49% did not believe in a future coming of a Messiah. These findings largely commensurate with the 1991 and 1999 surveys. [14]

In the Israeli Arab populace, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, a small minority identify as "secular"; [15] in the 2018 Israel Central Bureau of Statistics' general survey, 7% of Muslims identified as "not religious." [16] Yet the meaning of being "secular" is even weaker than among Israeli Jews. While some Israeli Muslims largely ignore religious commandments in their personal lives (avoiding daily prayer and not fasting on Ramadan are the main hallmarks), open disregard is virtually unheard of. Many of them maintain religious beliefs, and utter disattachment from Islam is extremely rare. Muslim society does not acknowledge and has no concept of non-religiosity. Scholar Ronald Kronish commented that "traditional" would be a more appropriate epithet for the "secular", estimated to constitute 10–20% of the whole population. [15]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judaism</span> Ethnic religion of the Jewish people

Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people, having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Contemporary Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the cultic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orthodox Judaism</span> Traditionalist branches of Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reform Judaism</span> Denomination of Judaism

Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous search for truth and knowledge, which is closely intertwined with human reason and not limited to the theophany at Mount Sinai. A highly liberal strand of Judaism, it is characterized by lessened stress on ritual and personal observance, regarding halakha as non-binding and the individual Jew as autonomous, and great openness to external influences and progressive values. The fundamental difference is the approach to Torah and the implications of that approach. The Orthodox believe that it comes directly from God and so cannot be changed. Since its founding in Germany in the 1800s, Reform Judaism has adapted prayer liturgy into a more flexible understanding of Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish principles of faith</span>

There is no established formulation of principles of faith that are recognized by all branches of Judaism. Central authority in Judaism is not vested in any one person or group - although the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish religious court, would fulfill this role if it were re-established - but rather in Judaism's sacred writings, laws, and traditions.

Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the modern world.

Irreligion is the neglect or active rejection of religion and, depending on the definition, a simple absence of religion.

Religion in the United States is widespread, diverse, and vibrant, with the country far more religious than other wealthy Western nations. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power, engage in spiritual practices such as prayer, and consider themselves religious. Christianity is the most widely professed religion, predominately composed of Evangelicals, Catholics, and mainline Protestants. Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Many scholars of religion credit this and the country's separation of church and state for its high level of religiousness; lacking a state church, it completely avoided the experiences of religious warfare and conflict that characterized European modernization. Its history of religion has always been marked by religious pluralism and diversity.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish identity</span> Perceiving oneself as a Jew

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References

  1. ↑ Gal Amir, 1648 or 1948? No Room for Westphalia in the Middle-East . Journal on European History of Law, December 2018.
  2. ↑ Israel’s Religiously Divided Society . Pew Research Center, 8 March 2016.
  3. ↑ נוהל טיפול בעדכון מצב אישי לבן / בת זוג בברית הזוגיות לחסרי דת ("Status change for couples of no religion"). Israeli Ministry of the Interior, 1 May 2011. p. 1, 7.
  4. ↑ Ian S. Lustick, Israel as a Non-Arab State: The Political Implications of Mass Immigration of Non-Jews . Middle East Journal Vol. 53, No. 3. pp. 1-3, etc.
  5. ↑ Ilan Lior, Following Court Ruling, Hundreds of Israelis to Declare Themselves "Without Religion" . Haaretz, 9 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Ruth Halperin Kadri, הכל נשאר ברבנות. Haaretz, 19 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Tomer Persico, "ישראל במקום השמיני ברשימת המדינות הכי פחות דתיות בעולם".
  8. ↑ Phil Zuckerman (editor), The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies. Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 50.
  9. ↑ Stephen Sharot, Comparative Perspectives on Judaisms and Jewish Identities. Wayne State University Press, 2011. pp. 232-234; Yaacov Yadgar, Sovereign Jews: Israel, Zionism, and Judaism. State University of New York Press, 2017. pp. 189.
  10. 1 2 Yoav and Hurit Peled, The Religionization of Israeli Society. Routledge, 2018. pp. 14-15.
  11. ↑ Charles S. Liebman, Elihu Katz, Jewishness of Israelis, The Responses to the Guttman Report. SUNY Press, 2012. pp. 66, 130-131.
  12. ↑ Yadger, Sovereign Jews, p. 184.
  13. ↑ Shmuel Rosner, מי שמאמין: המספרים שמאחורי האמונה בחברה הישראלית. Ma'ariv , 2 November 2019.
  14. ↑ A Portrait of Israeli Jews: Beliefs, Observance, and Values of Israeli Jews, 2009 . Israeli Democracy Institute, 2012. p. 50.
  15. 1 2 Ronald Kronish, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. pp. 64-69.
  16. ↑ ICBS 2018 Survey, p. 26 (20).
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