Scaling down Judaism: The politics of tradition and change among liberal observant Jews in Israel
type: CreativeWork
description: This study depicts the nonrevolutionary revolution that has been unfolding in Israel’s Religious-Zionist society for the past two decades. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Israel between 2014 and 2017 among religious congregations and nongovernmental organizations that belong to liberal circles of Religious-Zionist society. The revolution is about shifting the locus of religious authority from formal institutions and rabbinical leaders to “the people.” I call it nonrevolutionary because the men and women who lead it care about “tradition.” This study ultimately demonstrates that endeavors to promote social and religious change are sites of struggles about what constitutes “tradition.” Historically, Religious-Zionist Jews in Israel have viewed themselves as embodying and enacting Israel’s Jewish and democratic ideal through their integration within Israeli society and state institutions. I study Religious-Zionists who identify as dati’im liberalim, liberal religious Jews, who re-envision the locus of religious authority and of public Judaism. Instead of state institutions and official rabbinical leaders, they designate “communities,” that is, voluntary organizations of citizens, as the places where questions of halakhic significance should be debated and determined. This process, which I call, the “scaling-down of public Judaism,” is inspired by past models of community-based Judaism as well as by research participants’ notions of public religious life in the United States. Ultimately, I argue, liberal observant Jews in contemporary Israel promote a model of Religious-Zionist citizenship that favors local and individualized frameworks of civil participation in accordance with their community-based outlook on halakhic Judaism. During my fieldwork I accompanied the activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that propose community-based alternatives to the state’s Chief Rabbinate as well as residents of a south Jerusalem neighborhood who seek to transfor…
abstract: This study depicts the nonrevolutionary revolution that has been unfolding in Israel’s Religious-Zionist society for the past two decades. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Israel between 2014 and 2017 among religious congregations and nongovernmental organizations that belong to liberal circles of Religious-Zionist society. The revolution is about shifting the locus of religious authority from formal institutions and rabbinical leaders to “the people.” I call it nonrevolutionary because the men and women who lead it care about “tradition.” This study ultimately demonstrates that endeavors to promote social and religious change are sites of struggles about what constitutes “tradition.” Historically, Religious-Zionist Jews in Israel have viewed themselves as embodying and enacting Israel’s Jewish and democratic ideal through their integration within Israeli society and state institutions. I study Religious-Zionists who identify as dati’im liberalim, liberal religious Jews, who re-envision the locus of religious authority and of public Judaism. Instead of state institutions and official rabbinical leaders, they designate “communities,” that is, voluntary organizations of citizens, as the places where questions of halakhic significance should be debated and determined. This process, which I call, the “scaling-down of public Judaism,” is inspired by past models of community-based Judaism as well as by research participants’ notions of public religious life in the United States. Ultimately, I argue, liberal observant Jews in contemporary Israel promote a model of Religious-Zionist citizenship that favors local and individualized frameworks of civil participation in accordance with their community-based outlook on halakhic Judaism. During my fieldwork I accompanied the activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that propose community-based alternatives to the state’s Chief Rabbinate as well as residents of a south Jerusalem neighborhood who seek to transfor…
author: Fuchs, Ofira
language: en
keywords: Religious change, Judaism, Israel, Liberal Observant Jews, Religious-Zionism, Political Anthropology, Ethnography, Citizenship, Jewish Tradition, Religion and State, Jewish Communities, partnership minyans
date published: 2019-11-26T20:33:55Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:44Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105656