Masoratiim and Datiloniim
A very important article has been published in the most recent issue of Modern Judaism. (hat tip) The article is by Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser and titled Reform Judaism in Israel: The Anatomy of Weakness. Cohen and Susser describe the discomfort described by a secular Israel in a Reform synagogue,
This discomfiture touches on the central argument of this essay: the basic structural weakness of Reform Judaism in Israel (as opposed to its success in the United States) and the unlikelihood that it will succeed in expanding in the future. Beyond the specific prognosis for Israeli Reform Judaism, we contend that the movement’s weakness reflects broadly on the character of Jewish identity in Israel. Secular Jews, despite their ostensible proximity to the more intellectually lib- eral and halachically latitudinarian Reform movement are not rushing to fill its ranks. They seem to remain attached to Orthodox Judaism even while criticizing it acrimoniously.
Cohen and Susser claim that structural and cultural differences between Jewish life in America and Israeli don’t bode well for the future of Reform Judaism in Israel. While they don’t directly address Conservative Judaism in Israel, my own impression is that the conclusions would not be so different. The article introduced me to a new term, Datiloni, someone who combines the Dati (religious) and the Hiloni (secular) parts of their lives. A more commonly known term is Masorati, or Mizrahi, which is used to describe traditional Jews who are primarily from North African and Middle Eastern origin. These Jews do not strictly observe Jewish law, but they observe many Jewish rituals and often go to synagogue. See here for some discussion of recent literature on Masoratiim. This is an Israeli phenomenon, along with the many secular Israeli Jews who are studying Jewish texts and observing Jewish ritual, which many American Jews, and no small amount of Reform and Conservative Jews in Israel, can’t seem to understand. Masorati aren’t necessarily religiously observant, but they generally show no interest, if not outward opposition, to Reform or Conservative Judaism in Israel. Many secular Israeli Jews study Jewish texts, but show no interest in Reform or Conservative Judaism in Israel.
The truth is that the Israeli Jewish experience is just different than the American (or British, French,etc.) Jewish experience. It is poorer in some ways, has many challenges, but richer in many others. Denominationalism just doesn’t exist in Israel, and my guess is that the landscape of more informal and flexible (some of the time) groups that already does exist and continue to grow, will hold sway for the foreseeable future. For a very interesting discussion on religious Judaism in Israel, see this (Hebrew) recent post.
March 15th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
It is always perplexing to me why the Reform (and conservatives for that matter) always seem to feel a kinship with the “chilonim” of Israel, in their struggle in general with the Orthodox.
To me its the equivalent of calling a lapsed Catholic a protestant. While the Conservative Jew in the U.S. might drive on Shabbos to shull, and be an observant Conservative Jew in good standing.
However the chiloni who drives in Tel Aviv on Friday evening, is avoiding his Orthodox shul, not the Greek Orthodox Church and neither the Reform Shabbat kumzitz with the guitar playing/singing female Rabbi doing the Lecha Dodi. He is rather a lapsed Orthodox Jew, no more no less.
I once heard a quote that best illustrates this point from Yossi Sarid in describing his secularism; “The synagogue that I don’t attend is the Orthodox one”.
March 15th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Yoine,
While Yossi Sarid may have also said, “The synagogue that I don’t attend is the Orthodox one”, I think that the person who originally said it was Shlomo Avineri.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
It’s amusing that North Africans are now called Mizrahi; they used to be called Maghrebi …
March 15th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
It is true that Reform and Conservative Judaism grew out the cultural needs of America, and the situation is quite different in Israel, especially in the fact that there is not the same fear of assimilation from secular Jews in Israel as in the US. However, there is very little chance that other forms of Judaism can really grow in Isreal ( it does not have to be “Reform” or “Conservative”) until there is a seperation of State and Religion (Orthodoxy) in some form. How can other forms of Judaism grow when Orthodoxy has a strangle hold in Israel? Harry
March 16th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Thanks for posting this. I had always assumed that Masorati was similar to Conservative in the U.S. I go to an Orthodox synagogue in the U.S. which is mostly Morrocan and Syrian Israelis. Your description here fits this shul quite well.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
D.,
The Conservative movement in Israel is called The Movement for Masorati Judaism, which I would guess was chosen partially with Masorati/Middle Eastern Jews in mind.