Bounded Integration: The Religion-State Relationship and Democratic Performance in Turkey and Israel by Aviad Rubin

Author:Aviad Rubin [Rubin, Aviad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Comparative Politics, Political Science, Middle East, History, General
ISBN: 9781438480787
Google: Tif0DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 55562778
Publisher: SUNY Press
Published: 2020-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Religious Responses to State Recognition

Despite some public frustration with religious recognition, it was precisely the integration of religious content and groups into state affairs that mitigated tensions between the secular state and its observant Jewish populations, motivated the religious camp to identify with the state, and brought all parties to resolve their disagreements through legal political channels. Indeed, the multifaceted recognition of religion placed religious actors in a delicate and challenging situation which I have elsewhere called “bifurcated loyalty” (A. Rubin 2014). On the one hand, religious citizens found it difficult to accept a secular Jewish state that was not run according to Halakha, even though Halakha by itself is inadequate for managing a sovereign state, and Jewish tradition offers few ways of resolving the permanent tension between halakhic injunctions and democratic decision making. On the other hand, an independent Jewish state was perceived to be a substantial accomplishment after many generations in exile. Jewish independence was hard to explain without considering it, even among the mainstream ultraorthodox, as an act of divine intervention (M. Friedman 1999; Ravitzky 2005). While each religious camp attributed distinct meanings and theological importance to the events that led to the creation of the state, eventually the majority of Israel’s religious population came to recognize and participate in it.

The religious population in the state can be divided into three distinct camps: (1) Zionist, (2) non-Zionist, and (3) anti-Zionist. I first introduce these camps and then discuss the character of their interactions with the state during this period.

Zionists. In 1948 the Zionist camp included the Mizrahi and HaPoel HaMizrahi parties, which joined together in 1956 to create the Miflaga Datit Leumit, or Mafdal (the National Religious Party). These parties cooperated with the state in all realms, from participation in coalition governments to serving in the military to being part of the national education system (under separate and autonomous supervision). Collaboration with the secular state accompanied a modern worldview and an ongoing effort to reconcile daily life with religious observance.

The Zionist religious elite included political figures such as Rabbi Yehuda Leib (Fishman) Maimon, Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan, Zerach Warhaftig, Yosef Burg, and Rabbi Moshe Shapira, along with the leadership of the religious kibbutz movement (HaKibbutz HaDati), which combines Labor Zionist values with a religious way of life. Until 1967 this elite saw itself as a minor partner in fulfilling of the Zionist project and did not challenge the secular leadership in profane matters. For this reason, Mapai favored collaboration with Mafdal over more militant religious parties. Indeed, in Mapai’s view, “the NRP was a vehicle for mobilizing support among religious voters for a Mapai-dominated government” (Sandler 1996, 137). Rabbi Yuval Sharlo (Cherlow) argues that continuous attempts to reconcile the religious and statist-modern poles led this group to a pragmatic and tolerant approach, but also to religious mediocrity and selective observance of mitzvot (religious acts) (Sharlo 2007, 336). Conversely, Conforti emphasizes that during the 1950s and 1960s this camp was far more diverse, pluralistic, and open to different interpretations of the complex relationships between state, religion, and nation than it is currently.

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