Ahava (Laura) Zarembski, REFRACTED VISION: An Analysis of Religious-Secular Tensions in Israel, 2005
February 15, 2008 Israeli Culture War No Comments4-21e.pdf (application/pdf Object)
REFRACTED VISION: n Analysis of Religious-Secular Tensions in Israel
Ahava (Laura) Zarembski
A rise in tensions between the religious and secular Jewish communities in
Israel over the past thirty years is having a negative affect on Jewish social
cohesion and social morale. The problem is critical for its own sake and in the
context of the nation relating to its security-related crises. Yet the rise in
tensions between Haredi, Religious-Zionist, and Secular communities is
occurring against what the Louis Guttman reports revealed to be a backdrop of
relatively steady, nonpolarizing religious practice in Israel.1 What then is
causing the rise in tensions if not changing religious practice? How does it relate
to Israel’s diverse conglomerate of religious-traditional-secular-alternative
religious behavior? How is Israel to address the declining religious-secular
relationship? To do so, there needs to be an intricate understanding of the causes
of and influences on the growing divide as well as a projection of where the
nation ought to be going.
To help facilitate this complex endeavor of addressing religious-secular
relations, the Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies has undertaken a two part
series dealing with the various elements contributing to Israel’s religious-secular
divide.