Self-segregation of the vanguard: Judea and Samaria in the religious-Zionist society

Abstract

The religious-Zionist settlement movement combines revolutionary national action with a conservative, religious way of life. On the one hand, the leaders of the religious-Zionist settlement movement see themselves as spearheading a national mission with pan-Jewish significance. On the other hand, living in the movement's communities entails a certain degree of segregation from general society. A religious-Zionist settlement is also a community-based tool for Orthodox self-defence against what is perceived by a fundamentally conservative society as different and threatening to its religious way of life and continuity. A selective religious enclave, such as the religious-Zionist settlement, which is not too distant from the centres of employment, commerce, services, and entertainment in central Israel, is also an efficient arrangement for moderating friction with secular society. In addition, Judea and Samaria provide environments for the development of a distinctive suburban lifestyle among the religious-Zionist core populations, enabling them to be part of the new Israeli middle class at a price that young couples and (usually large) religious families can afford.

Keywords::

• organized religious Zionism
• the settlement movement
• religious enclave
• self-segregation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. For a discussion of the philosophical discourse regarding this dilemma, see, e.g., Asher Cohen, Talit and the Flag: Religious Zionism and the Concept of a Torah State, 1947–1953 [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 1999).

^2. Menachem Klein, Between Religion and Politics (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University: 1999).

^3. Ya'akov Filber, Ayelet ha-shahar [Morning star] (Jerusalem: Tora La-am, 1975).

^4. Among the communities for which material was gathered are Kedummim, Karnei Shomron, Revava, Elkana, and Othniel.

^5. Yehouda. L. Maimon, La-sha'a vela-dor (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1965), 50–58.

^6.Hapoel Hamizrachi movement was founded as a new political orthodox and national party in 1922 under the religious-Zionist slogan ‘Torah va'Avodah’ (Torah and Labour). The new religious party leaded an alternative social ideology to the former religious-Zionist movement, The Mizrachi (a Hebrew acronym for Religious Centre). In 1955 the two parties established the National Religious Party, the MAFDAL.

^7. David Taub, The Roots of Ideological Conflict in National-religious Education [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007)

^8. Meir Har-Noy, Ha-zeman ha-katom: ha-akira mi-gush katif, yoman ishi [Orange times: the uprooting of Gush Katif, a personal diary] (Jerusalem: Karmel, 2007): 243–4.

^9. Eliezer Ben-Rafael, The Emergence of Ethnicity: Cultural Groups and Social Conflict in Israel (London: Greenwoods, 1982).

^10. Cf. Menachem Friedman, Haredi Society [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1990).

^11. Mordechai Bar-Lev, “Dyokanam ha-hevrati shel bogrei ha-midrashia,” Niv ha-Midrashia 13 (1978): 244.

^12. Ibid., p.244.

^13. “Ha-savyon shel ha-shomron,” Makor Rishon, March 9, 2007. Savyon is regarded in Israel as an upper class town.

^14. “Table 1. Persons Aged 15 and Over, by Years of Schooling, Highest Certificate, and Religion in Localities Numbering 2,000 Inhabitants and Above,” in Central Bureau of Statistics, Socio-Economic Characteristics of Population and Households in Localities with 2,000 Inhabitants and More and in Statistical Areas, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics, 1999), publication no. 8.

^15. Ibid.

^16. Gideon Aran, “From Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion: The Roots of Gush Emunim,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 2 (1986): 116–43.

^17. Michael Feige, One Space, Two Places: Gush Emunim, Peace Now and the construction of Israeli space (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003), 22–45.

^18. Dov Schwartz, Challenge and Crisis in Rabbi Kook's Circle [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Am-Oved, 2001), 15–110.

^19. Ronen Friedman, “A New ‘holy revolt’” (PhD diss., Tel Aviv University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2004).

^20. Shlomo Fischer, “Self-Expression and Democracy in Religious Zionist Ideology” (PhD diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Education, 2007).

^21. Haim Be'er, Et ha-Zamir [The time of trimming] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1987).

^22. H. Moses, “Ha-im anahnu tsibbur nirdaf?,” Olam Katan 96 (Nisan 2, 5769 [March 27, 2009]); Udi Lebel, “Ha-hitnatkut: nisayon le-hilufei elitot be-tsahal uva-hevra ha-yisre'elit” [The disengagement: an attempt at replacing elites in the IDF and Israeli society], in Be-tsel ha-hitnatkut: dialog astrategi be-mashber [In the shadow of the disengagement: strategic dialogue in crisis], ed. Udi Lebel and Haim Misgav (Jerusalem: Karmel, 2008), 207–32; Anat Roth, Secret of its Strength: Yesha Council and its Campaign against the Security Fence and the Disengagement Plan [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute 2005).

^23. Filber, Ayelet ha-Shahar, 22.

^24. Ido Liberman, “Is the ‘Religious Zionism’ Movement on the Road to Segregation?” [in Hebrew] (PhD diss., Bar-Ilan University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2004), 75–86; Matti Dombrowsky, “Separation and Seclusion in Contemporary Religious Zionism: Educational Developments” [in Hebrew] (Master's thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Jewish History, 2004), 49–79.

^25. Tamar Rappaport, Anat Penso, and Yoni Garb, “Zeh davar hashuv be-erets-yisrael latet la-tsibbur: ne'arot tsiyoniyot datiyot tormot la-le'om,” Te'oria u-vikoret, Theory and Criticism 7 (1995), 223–34; Tamar Rapoport, Anat Penso, and Yoni Garb, “Contribution to the Collective by Religious-Zionist Adolescent Girls,” British Journal of Sociology of Education 15, no. 3 (1994): 375–88.

^26. Asaf Sharabi, Boundary Work in the Israeli Teshuva Movement [in Hebrew] (PhD diss., Bar-Ilan University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2010), 175–83.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nissim Leon

Nissim Leon (PhD) is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.