{"id":8180,"date":"2022-12-04T15:54:47","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T13:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/?post_type=article&p=6599"},"modified":"2023-01-20T10:04:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T08:04:38","slug":"english-the-new-israeli-officials-seeking-to-redefine-jewish-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/english-the-new-israeli-officials-seeking-to-redefine-jewish-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"The new Israeli officials seeking to redefine Jewish identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Religious Zionism\u2019s focus on rebranding Israeli society could test the Jewish state\u2019s already fragile relationship with more liberal Diaspora Jewish communities<\/h3>\n
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MK Avi Maoz Photo by Shalev Shalom\/TPS<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Israeli politicians Avi Maoz, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir ran together on a campaign platform of restoring the country\u2019s Jewish identity.<\/p>\n

While the trio\u2019s \u2018return to Jewish values\u2019 message resonated with a large segment of the Israeli public \u2013 the Nov. 1 vote made Religious Zionism, their united party list, the third largest political faction in the Knesset and a critical cog in Netanyahu\u2019s return to power \u2013 their focus on rebranding Israeli society could very well test the Jewish state\u2019s already fragile relationship with more liberal Diaspora Jewish communities \u2014 even if that is not their intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir goal is not to enrage Diaspora Jews, they\u2019re looking mostly at Israel,\u201d Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, told Jewish Insider. \u201cThey want Israel to be a Jewish state and their understanding of a Jewish state is a state in which the Orthodox interpretation of Jewishness is the main character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as if they want all Jews in Israel to become observant \u2013 well, they do want that, but they are not striving to make all of us more religious or more observant \u2013 they want both observant and non-observant Jews to accept Orthodox Judaism as the legitimate interpretation of Jewishness,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat is why staunchly religious Reform Judaism is more of a threat than a secular Orthodox interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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MK Avi Maoz Photo by Shalev Shalom\/TPS<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rosner, who co-authored #IsraeliJudaism: Portrait of a Cultural Revolution, said, however, he did not think the two communities were heading for a total breakdown anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been many breaking points between Israel and Diaspora Jews, but ultimately Israeli Jews don\u2019t have other Jews to rely on apart from Diaspora Jews, and Diaspora Jews don\u2019t have any other countries they can identify with other than this one Jewish state,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, both, with all of their flaws, are still the only alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Israel survive without the support of American Jews? I assume it can, but why would Israel want to survive without the support of American Jews?\u201d Rosner added. \u201cIsrael should strive to have the support of American Jews and the same is true for Americans, why would they want to disengage from the most exciting and most dramatic Jewish enterprise in 2,000 years?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cDo we need each other less than we did in the past in the material sense, yes, but we need each other because if you recognize that the Jews are a people \u2013 and we are a very small people \u2013 then you understand that splitting a small people in half, is not a healthy recipe for either community.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read the article published By Ruth Marks Eglash on ‘Jewish Insider’, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religious Zionism\u2019s focus on rebranding Israeli society could test the Jewish state\u2019s already fragile relationship with more liberal Diaspora Jewish communities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topics-religion-and-state","topics-identity","library-op-ed"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8993,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180\/revisions\/8993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}