Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

4-21e.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.