Noted Israeli public intellectual Micah Goodman offers to English readers insights into the complexity of religion and secularism in contemporary Israeli society. Goodman argues that even though Israel is deeply divided between secular and religious camps, there are actually other dynamics that provide pathways for mutual respect and even cooperation. Relevant for readers outside of Israel is Goodman’s portrayal of expressions of Judaism within Israel that are not manifested elsewhere in the global diaspora.
Goodman argues that the Zionist project created the polarized dynamics within Israeli society. He explains how early Zionist figures, exemplified by Micha Josef Berdyczewski, held that Jewish political and social powerlessness was a result of religious obedience. Because Jews, especially in eastern Europe, focused on religious life and its requirements, they were unable to mobilize for self-determination. A secular worldview was necessary for true liberation. During this same era, modern Jewish orthodoxy emerged as a reaction to modernity and Jewish rapprochement with the civil society of Gentile countries. Orthodoxy, Goodman argues, is not the pure preservation of ancient traditions but an “ideology of not changing Judaism” (33). The founding of the State of Israel in 1948 saw secular Zionists cede issues of religious life in Israel to Orthodox rabbis, leading both to the marginalization of other expressions of Jewish religious life and creating the foundations for the current impasse between secular and religious forces.
Goodman shows how secular movements within Israel manifest a renewal of Jewish life beyond the traditional categories of religion in Israel. As a counterpoint, Goodman excavates perspectives and streams within contemporary orthodoxy that show a willingness to offer other forms of engaging with tradition and modernity. For those unfamiliar with contemporary Israel, Goodman offers several vital insights.
The first insight is the explication of the secular-religious debate that shapes both Israel as a state and religious expression of Judaism in it. Judaism as practiced in Israel is distinct from expressions in the diaspora. Reform movement forms of Judaism are not as prevalent there. Even Jews who view themselves as not religious still look to orthodoxy as a benchmark for religious identity. Yet, as Goodman shows, the permutations of expressions of Jewish identity and belonging in terms of belief and practice are highly varied as they have adapted in Israel. This is a dynamic largely unseen in the West, especially for those who are not Jewish.
Goodman also makes plain how Judaism encompasses more than standard categories of religion. Judaism is not limited to religious identity but is fundamentally a means of belonging to a people. This means that the parameters of what counts as Jewish can also include secularism and rejection of traditional beliefs. The early Zionist leader Ahad Ha’am argued that because Judaism is not first a religion, solidarity and belonging can occur first with the idea of the cohesiveness of a Jewish nation. Trust shifts from God to the collective, yet Jewish identity itself abides since the traditions and values found in religious expressions of Judaism still exist as a patrimony to draw on. Judaism includes religion but is more than that.
Goodman further illustrates how Israeli Judaism draws on its traditions as resources, but not necessarily as binding strictures. A. D. Goodman embraced a secular mysticism, arguing that secular Jews were closer to God than religiously observant ones. This allows some secular Israelis to embrace spiritual elements from their traditions while not feeling bound to it in the same way as Orthodox Jews. This is a contextual counterpoint to the phenomenon of the religiously unaffiliated commonly studied in North American and European contexts. Goodman introduces readers to the traditions of Sephardi or Mizrahi Jews who immigrated from Muslim countries. They bring a different encounter to the requirements of Torah than the Orthodox leadership drawn from European contexts. Having a different encounter with modernity, Mizrahi communities offer a form of traditionalism that permits adaptive engagement with Torah. Sidestepping the ideal of an unchanging Judaism, this movement offers an insight into other forms of embodying the Jewish tradition commonly overlooked in Western discourses.
In sum, Goodman presents to readers an informed account of contemporary developments within Israeli Judaism that is essential information for anyone who would want a deeper study of contemporary Judaism.
