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Scaling Down Judaism: the Politics of Tradition and Change Among Liberal Observant Jews in Israel

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Scaling Down Judaism: the Politics of Tradition and Change Among Liberal Observant Jews in Israel SCALING DOWN JUDAISM: THE POLITICS OF TRADITION AND CHANGE AMONG LIBERAL OBSERVANT JEWS IN ISRAEL BY OFIRA FUCHS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Virginia R. Domínguez, Chair Professor Andrew Orta Associate Professor Jessica Greenberg Associate Professor Michal Kravel-Tovi, Tel-Aviv University ABSTRACT This study depicts the nonrevolutionary revolution that has been unfolding in Israel’s Religious-Zionist society for the past two decades. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Israel between 2014 and 2017 among religious congregations and nongovernmental organizations that belong to liberal circles of Religious-Zionist society. The revolution is about shifting the locus of religious authority from formal institutions and rabbinical leaders to “the people.” I call it nonrevolutionary because the men and women who lead it care about “tradition.” This study ultimately demonstrates that endeavors to promote social and religious change are sites of struggles about what constitutes “tradition.” Historically, Religious-Zionist Jews in Israel have viewed themselves as embodying and enacting Israel’s Jewish and democratic ideal through their integration within Israeli society and state institutions. I study Religious-Zionists who identify as dati’im liberalim, liberal religious Jews, who re-envision the locus of religious authority and of public Judaism. Instead of state institutions and official rabbinical leaders, they designate “communities,” that is, voluntary organizations of citizens, as the places where questions of halakhic significance should be debated and determined. This process, which I call, the “scaling-down of public Judaism,” is inspired by past models of community-based Judaism as well as by research participants’ notions of public religious life in the United States. Ultimately, I argue, liberal observant Jews in contemporary Israel promote a model of Religious-Zionist citizenship that favors local and individualized frameworks of civil participation in accordance with their community-based outlook on halakhic Judaism. During my fieldwork I accompanied the activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that propose community-based alternatives to the state’s Chief Rabbinate as well as ii residents of a south Jerusalem neighborhood who seek to transform religious practices and community life at the local-municipal level. My fieldwork activities included participant observations, interviews, informal conversations, and a survey of public discourse in Religious- Zionist journals, newspapers, and social media. My multi-sited fieldwork allowed me to identify ways that reform initiatives at the level of everyday life are interrelated with organized activism at the broader level of state politics. This study joins ongoing anthropological conversations about the entwining of religion and politics in the consolidation of citizenship, national identity, and social belonging in contemporary nation-states. This line of investigation has focused on the relations between secular state ideologies and public religions. The Israeli case furthers this conversation by contributing the perspective of a state that self-identifies as Jewish. Furthermore, while scholars have emphasized the central role of deliberate re-interpretation of religious texts, rituals, and objects in processes of religious change in Jewish communities, I demonstrate that bodily sensations, dispositions, affect, and social identifications are as important in the shaping of religious change. By showing how the interplay between tradition and innovation plays out on the ground in Religious-Zionist communities, this study proves that in today’s Israel, tradition is a valuable social and political currency in struggles between Jewish groups over the nature of public Jewish life. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the generous, kind and sincere collaboration of the men and women I met during my field work. Especially, my gratitude goes to the team of ITIM organization and to the members of the Baka Minyan. Fieldwork is a strange endeavor, and to this day I do not fully understand what makes people trust an ethnographer and allow her to participate in their daily routines, family gatherings, and inner worlds. The people of ITIM and the Baka Minyan have done all of this, and much more, and I am deeply grateful. During the course of my studies I had the pleasure and fortune to work with a cadre of smart, experienced, and supportive scholars. I could not have asked for a better PhD advisor and committee Chair than Virginia Dominguez. I am thankful for her encouragement and support throughout my PhD program, and for sharing with me her precious knowledge about what being an anthropologist means. Her advice that I follow and trust my instincts (she described it more picturesquely) gave me a much-needed confidence to explore new research directions that made my research more relevant, interesting, and fun. Ongoing conversations over the years with Andrew Orta and Jessica Greenberg were valuable sources of inspiration, after which I always went back home full of exciting new ideas I could not wait to incorporate into my research. Michal Kravel-Tovi joined my committee relatively late in the process, but her contribution is immense. She was always curious, supportive and enthusiastic about my research. Her sharp critique pushed me to be more precise, and her wise guidance is a model of academic excellence and human kindness. In the earlier years of my PhD training I had the fortune to enjoy the guidance of Matti Bunzl, who introduced me to the world of Jewish Studies and inspired me to situate myself in the intersection of Jewish Studies and Anthropology, and Nancy Abelmann, z”l, iv whose fresh outlook, genuine curiosity, and infectious enthusiasm had continued to inspire and guide me long after she was no longer with us. At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, I was lucky to have supportive and smart colleagues, whose friendship made me feel less alone and gave me the hope that, maybe, this PhD was possible. I especially thank my writing partners: Agnes Sohn, Dohye Kim, Emily Metzner, and Elizabeth Youngling, for their thoughtful feedback over the years. I also thank Elizabeth Spears, Karla Harmon and Joyce Dowell for providing crucial administrative support. My fieldwork was made possible by generous grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Gr. 9039), the Graduate College at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the American Academy for Jewish Research. I am grateful to the Program in Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for supporting my writing through a Gendell Family and Shiner Family Fellowship. Portions of chapter five have been published previously in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (Fuchs 2018). I thank my parents, Tuvia and Miriam Fux. Although not fully understanding what I have been doing “in school” all these years, and surely preferring that I were closer to home, they have nevertheless supported and encouraged me through this long journey. And finally, to my dear, beloved family – Efrat and Amalia – for the love and joy they have brought into my life. Amalia, who joined us in the final stretch of my PhD, with her laughter, curiosity, and love has given me a much-needed grounding during this time. And Efrat, whose support, faith, and courage have reminded me, over and over again, that I can fly. I dedicate this work to my mother. During the forty years she has lived in a secular, Ashkenazi kibbutz, she insisted on maintaining her beit abba (home) traditions and identity and, by doing so, has taught me to never give up on the things I care about the most. Without this v lesson I would not have become a wife and a mother and would not have written this dissertation. .תודה ,Thank you vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: FROM STATE TO COMMUNITY: RE-ENVISIONING PUBLIC JUDAISM IN ISRAEL ......................................................................................................55 CHAPTER 3: MAKING PUBLIC JUDAISM A “PERSONAL MATTER” ....................95 CHAPTER 4: A NEW CITY SQUARE: PUBLIC PLACE-MAKING IN SOUTH JERUSALEM ..................................................................................................................130 CHAPTER 5: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ORDINARY: TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN A JERUSALEM MINYAN..............................................................169 CHAPTER 6: THE SCALING DOWN OF PUBLIC JUDAISM AND RELIGIOUS-ZIONIST CITIZENSHIP ..........................................................................212 EPILOGUE: KADDISH FOR SAVTA ALIZA................................................................235 REFERENCES CITED ....................................................................................................239 APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY ...........................................................................................251 APPENDIX B: HEBREW EXCERPTS ..........................................................................255 APPENDIX C: TIKKUNIM MAP (2016): “SHAVUOT NIGHT IN JERUSALEM” ...260 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION My last visit to the Baka Minyan in the Baka neighborhood in
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