Judaism in Israel has changed since Ben-Gurion: Lapid is hanging mezuzot

Today no one would think much of this, but it’s a stark contrast to the old labor Zionist attitude to Judaism. When Menachem Begin became prime minister in 1977, one of the first things he noticed was that the Prime Minister’s Office had no mezuzah. His five predecessors – David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin – were not bothered by a door with no mezuzah. They had been the standard-bearers of the secular brand of socialist Zionism who championed a replacement of classical Judaism with a new brand of secular Jewish nationalism. Begin was first a Jew, rooted in tradition, from which blossomed the intrinsic bond of a Jew to Eretz Yisrael. According to Yehuda Avner, author of The Prime Ministers, Begin wanted a mezuzah affixed. Avner asked if he should call the press. “No,” said Begin, “bring a hammer.” Moments later the new prime minister recited the blessing that he knew by heart and installed a mezuzah.

That blessing represented a new era in Israel, one in which Judaism became more natural to Israeli society. This struck me in the week before Shavuot, when I was watching the local news on my iPad, tracking the political tensions in Israel. It seemed that every dairy product imaginable was being advertised in the days before the holiday.

Most American Jews have little or no idea of the significance of Shavuot, marking the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. It’s not a major holiday here outside the observant community. But for Israelis, it’s significant. Some attend synagogue, others flock to the beach, and many even do both. It’s so ubiquitous that even local businesses capitalize on it in their advertising. The tradition of eating dairy is a religious one, rooted in the experience on Sinai when the Jews hadn’t yet learned the proper laws of kosher slaughter, so they ate dairy. Religious or not, according to the intriguing study of the intersection of Jewish identity and modern Israel, Israeli Judaism by Shmuel Rosner and Camil Fuchs, 82% of Israelis eat dairy on Shavuot.

MANY OF the early Zionist leaders did battle against traditional Judaism. Every religious Jew knows the sordid history, from the assassination of Jacob Dahan in 1924 by the Hagana, to the stories of the children of Tehran in the pre-state era. Then later, with the children of Yemen, and the effort in the early decades to place immigrants from observant families in secular schools. When politicians like Ben-Gurion made compromises on issues of religion, it was more as a result of political expediency than a desire to integrate Jewish values into society.

There’s no question that elements of this culture of hostility toward tradition continue today. In particular on the political Left, the Supreme Court, in academia and the media. While the court will have Arab justices, there has never been a haredi justice. Its leadership resists any reform in the self-selective process of judicial appointment. Yet even in these historic secular bastions we are seeing a subtle shift toward a greater inclusivity of a religious perspective. Just look at religious Israeli TV hosts like Sivan Rahav Meir and Amit Segal.

Israel today is a different county than the one the socialist-Zionist pioneers envisioned. Judaism reaches much deeper into day-to-day living. We are far from the days when secular-Zionist prime ministers refused to put up mezuzot. Today, even parties that are rooted in secularism cannot divorce themselves from the core of Jewish identity, and even the prime minister is wearing a kippah.

There are still many issues of contention between state and religion, and the political debate will be with us for many more years. There is a good chance this new government may attempt to lower religious standards, putting many traditional Jews on edge. However, the tone has changed. Judaism has moved from something the early Zionist leaders wanted to replace with a brand of secular nationalism to an intrinsic dimension in modern Israeli society.

Today, a young non-Orthodox American Jew has a 70% chance of intermarrying. For those in the non-Orthodox sector there is a strong chance that those tenuous ties to Judaism will wither away. For Israeli Jews of the same age, their trajectory is totally different. Intermarriage rates amongst young Israelis is miniscule, the connection to tradition much higher. As we see today, 30% of Israelis observe Shabbat and another 30% identify as traditional. According to Rosner, just 28% of Israelis see themselves as secular. If a young Israeli has political aspirations, he will have to learn the blessing of the mezuzah and keep a kippah handy so he can affix one in a foreign embassy.