Israel’s Religious Zionist Vs. Ultra-Orthodox Rift

[oberliner]

Excerpt:

The Religious Zionists and the ultra-Orthodox hareidi political parties are headed for a major rift. The party that represents the Religious Zionists (Naftali Bennett’s The Jewish Home) might no longer support yeshiva exemptions from army service and expensive subsidies for super-large (read: hareidi) families. The rift might happen now or later, but it will happen, because the underlying reason is not political but sociological. The Religious Zionists and the hareidis have been headed for a divide over three periods in the history of the State.

Between 1947 and 1967, the two groups had considerable overlap. They had virtually the same background with the leadership having studied in the same European or British Mandate yeshivas. They had strong blood ties as well. They shared the same goal to restore religious Judaism within a completely hostile secular environment. While they fought each other on the details, they shared enough in principle to find a modus operandi. The ultra-Orthodox, soon to be known as hareidi, circling the wagons, saw themselves as the surviving remnant guarding the purity of religious devotion, while the Religious Zionists fancied themselves the bridge between the hareidi and the secular. The Religious Zionists served in the army and were in every coalition government in the early years of the State, making sure to preserve such endangered institutions as the religious educational stream.

The forty years between the 1967 Six Day War and 2007 witnessed an amazing growth in both sectors. Religious Zionists fueled with Land Messianism built high schools and advanced yeshivas, especially those with joint arrangement with the IDF for military service; and parallel programs opened up for women, with most there doing social service instead. The Religious Zionists produced their own rabbis and teachers, and their own theologies, and no longer needed the hareidis for personnel, books, inspiration or validation. Their manic depressive atmosphere—based on territorial wins and losses, and the perplexing issue of why they weren’t extoled for their sacrifices and devotion by the Secularists—remained heated.

At the same time, the hareidi growth was spectacular: While Religious Zionists were having 3-6 children, the hareidis were having 8-12 (and beyond!). The numbers add up. An explosion in yeshiva-building—the only industry they have—never stopped. Alienation from general society and, for that matter, from the Religious Zionists, was encouraged. As they were only talking to themselves, obscurantism increased on a par with poverty and its ills. Secular education, as it was, ended in seventh grade. Boys were raised to be physically unfit to serve in the army, educationally unfit for higher education, and work became an increasingly odd notion. Girls were raised to marry early, to be submissive, to mother large families, and to find employment to support all of them. The important thing to note is that, all in all, it worked! Their numbers grew, attrition was minimal, and morale was plenty high.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/07/israel-s-religious-zionist-vs-ultra-orthodox-rift.html

The whole article is fascinating for those who are interested in this sort of thing.