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This paper begins with the observation that secular Judaism1 in Israel is completely different from secular Judaism in the Diaspora. One describes a way of life in which many Israelis find to be a comfortable expression of what it means to be a Jew. The other more typically describes the first step toward dissociation from anything Jewish. The first is an integral, thriving (sub-)culture; the second is quite the opposite. We look to a new and controversial theory about the transmission and survival of cultural traits for insight into whether, and how, Secular Diaspora Judaism could develop some of the strength of its Israeli counterpart. In the process we explore how well Judaism fits into this model, to validate its application. Finally we sketch a few tentative steps toward applying the theory to the problem at hand. |
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Zion and the Diaspora |
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The Enlightenment gave birth to Jewish Emancipation, and Jewish Emancipation gave birth — after a century of labor pains — to the State of Israel. Those labor pains included the literature of Zionist speculation and ideology. |
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The so-called "Zionist Century" saw an outpouring of discussion on the questions of what does it mean to "be" Jewish and what should be the character of the Jewish State. Some general themes seem to be generally agreed upon by historians (see box, Chapter Headings). The nature of the child is still very much a topic of dispute -- Amos Oz (Oz, 1992) provided a series of snapshots taken in 1983 showing the great variability of point of view among (then-) modern Israelis. |
Themes of Zionism (Shimoni; 1995)
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Such characteristics of secular Israeli society as a basic tension between the religious and the secular play out themes that begin in the Zionist writings. Alfandari (Alfandari, no date) observes "The majority of Israelis look upon the Bible as the supreme contribution of the Hebrew people to mankind. But it is literature, not even sacred literature… Judaism as a religion, was the product of a specific age, filled the needs of a generation which had not been exposed to the challenge of scientific inquiry…To the religious element of Israel's population, … Jewish nationhood was and is a spiritual nationhood." | ||
It seems safe to say that many secular Israelis have a connection to the ancient texts that is stronger and more pervasive than in the Diaspora. This has been built into the Israeli educational system from the start: "… in modern Israel [the] Bible … holds a central place in the general educational system. [T]his experiment [has] been conducted now for two generations…" (Adar, 1967). Many Israelis are, anecdotally at least, appalled at the level of Jewish education in the U.S. and England: |
From a Jewish FAQ However, many people who call themselves Jews do not believe in that religion at all! More than half of all Jews in Israel today call themselves "secular," and don't believe in G-d or any of the religious beliefs of Judaism. | |
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"Ira said, "Good clear thought and explanation so that even a non-biblical student (like most of us)... [Ellipsis in original]" I'm not taking issue with the fact that most readers of the HJ [Humanistic Judaism] postings could not be considered biblical scholars, but I would like to raise the question, "Why not"? It seemed to me that far too often I've read messages saying that secular Jews cannot read Hebrew, don't have a reasonable knowledge of Jewish history, are unaware of the roots of the Jewish festivals, or in Ira's comment, that they have a poor understanding of the bible. If it's not too extreme a view to hold, I would say "shame on you" to anyone who confesses to such gaps in their Jewish knowledge. Would a Christian say he'd heard something about the teachings of Jesus, but wasn't that familiar with them? Would a Moslem say that he knows the Koran is important to his religion, but that he hadn't studied it too much himself? And let's not kid ourselves into believing that our poor knowledge is the result of not attending Hebrew school when we were kids. There is no statute of limitations on learning. Ira, go on line and order Isaac Asimov's "Guide to the Bible" from Amazon, and read it from cover to cover. I guarantee you'll be amazed. The bible is central to the life of all Jews, orthodox and secular, and to claim, quite blatantly, that most HJ proponents aren't scholars of the work is astounding. Study, and then study some more!2 | ||
Jewish themes, like little Jewish organisms, survive and develop in the Petri dish of Israeli culture. Given the admixture of Jewish themes that were brought to bear at the founding of the state — from the prophetically-linked Labor Zionism to Ahad Ha’Am’s spiritual center, given the power struggles between secular and religious elements, given the final argument for the Zionist cause that came from the destruction of both Western and Eastern Jewish cultures in the Holocaust, and the early commitment of the founders of the state to achieve exactly this vital cultural broth, no surprise is possible. | H. N. Bialik (Bialik, 1925) This is the very curse of the Galut, that our undertakings do not, indeed cannot, prosper | |
But Israel with its almost six million Jews is not the whole story. (From the point of view of raw biological survival, one might well question whether packing an entire population into a small territory is a wise strategy -- not that there is any likelihood of all Diaspora Jews suddenly making Aliyah.) Rather, we need to ask the question whether secular Judaism will survive in the Diaspora. The prospect is not encouraging: "Like you, I too see the future of our people as less than optimistic. Looking 50-100 years down the road I see two centres of religious Jewry, in the US (New York) and Israel, with the rest of the world's Jews having assimilated into their major host communities. What can be done to reverse the trend? Should we even bother? Is it worth the effort?"3 |
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