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PARTISAN REVIEW
The second, very arute, and difficult problem concerns the relationship
between the state and the religion. Outsiders talk about separating Church
and state. We don't have a "church." We have as many "churches"
as
religious political parties. However, there are three main questions: What
is
the status of religion
in
Israel? Do we have a Jewish state in the religious
sense? And ifwe do, what
is
the status of specific
rituals
and customs?
Some of these problems existed from the very beginning. For example,
in 1948, there was a debate about whether the official day of rest should
be
Saturday or not. Some were against it because Israel is a serular country, but
they were outvoted. This decision said something about allegiance, about
loyalty to the Jewish religion. And there were other decisions, such
as
legislating against pork and against raising and selling pigs. Is that part of
something the state must have a stand on? What does it mean that Shabbat
is
the official rest day? Although I'm secular, I don't think that one can separate
state and religion, essentially because the roots of Jewish culture are
so
interwoven with religion, with the Bible and the Talmud. Nobody wants to
discard the Talmud as a cultural heritage, it's very rich. In Israel, we don't
even know what it means to be "secular." Very few people are entirely
secular; there are gradations ofwhat it means to be secular or nonserular.
One study fOund that people are holding onto something. And our relationship
with DiasporaJudaism - one ofour important links -
is
religious. Therefore,
religion cannot be disregarded. Moreover, I don't think that there are many
Christian countries where religion does not have a certain status.
Another problem is the relationship of the state to the religious
establishment In forty years this establishment became much more powerful
than it was in the beginning, due to the autonomy of the judiciary and of
religious legislation, and to the economic basis it achieved. Some groups
became more organized and get ongoing support. And the stronger a
religious establishment grew the stronger its vested interest: people are
living off this establishment; money and power are involved; and there
is
support from outside. For the first time, the Lubavicher from Brooklyn
is
becoming a political power in Israel. It's really fantastic, but when he gives
an
order, part of the religious establishment in Israel accepts it. Those who are
in the Lubavicher Yeshiva don't go into the army. But the Lubavicher
is
the
one who says that the West Bank is part of Israel, so that everybody else
has to go into the army and keep the West Bank. Before the whole debate
about the new government, some Israelis phoned the Lubavicher to ask
whether the religious establishment should support the Labor party. Thus we
have the influence of the American goverment, of the American serular
Jewish institution, and of the Lubavicher. But they don't agree with each
other. Anyway, we have a strong religious establishement that is difficult to
dismantle.
To have a religious establishment means that they control schools; that
