Christian Identity in Israel Dissertation Presented In
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Christian Identity in Israel Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Evelyn Ann Gertz, M.A. Graduate Program in Sociology The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee: Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Advisor Ryan King Reanne Frank Copyright by Evelyn Ann Gertz 2019 Abstract In the United States, there is a strong disconnect between how scholars externally classify people’s identities (e.g., separating race, religion, and ethnicity for regression analyses and census collections) and capturing individual’s lived experiences. Guided by this idea that scholars have misidentified where individuals locate themselves along identity spectrums, my research explores how members of a religious minority in the Middle East perceive the relationship between their religious and ethnic identities. Does one identity more adequately capture how they identify as individuals and experience boundaries between groups? What are the social factors that influence how they perceive the ethno-religious relationship? Finally, what factors explain the prevalence of religious minorities across the Middle East seeking ethnic distinction? Through interviews with 80 Christians in Israel, my research finds that that minority individuals in a Middle Eastern context view religion as the most salient source of difference between people. However, the presence of a bright religious or bright ethnic boundary influences how they perceive the relationship between ethnicity and religion. Finally, a religious minority will seek ethnic distinction when the organization of the political arena encourages this strategy. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the National Science Foundation and the Global Religion Research Initiative at the University of Notre Dame for funding this research. Next, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the world’s most optimistic, supportive, and responsive PhD adviser, Hollie Nyseth Brehm. Thank you for answering an email at 1am on a Saturday morning during the first month of graduate school, thereby cementing our mentor/mentee relationship. I will never forgot my shock at that moment, of realizing how deeply you care about helping others, how constructive your feedback is, and how quickly you respond to emails! Thank you for your incisive intellectual feedback on all my projects, for writing letters of recommendation with only a few hours’ notice, and for always listening so acutely to my ideas. I am profoundly grateful for your support and cannot imagine what this experience would have been like without you as my biggest advocate. I would like to deeply thank Ryan King as well for his intellectual mentorship these past few years. One of my absolute favorite parts of graduate school was discussing my research in your office. Thank you for always listening to my ideas and reading my work so thoughtfully and thoroughly, for challenging me to think deeper about the theoretical contributions, and for always offering a solution to a noted challenge. I cannot adequately iii express how much I will miss working with you, and the extent to which I believe I have developed as a researcher as a result of your mentorship. Your voice repeatedly telling me to “slow down and take readers step by step” will forever be in my head as I continue my research career! I would also like to thank Reanne Frank for her invaluable intellectual support with my dissertation this past year and a half. Your deep knowledge of the field and familiarity with the literature are awe-inspiring! I am incredibly grateful for your close reading of my chapters, your keen intellectual insights, and your enthusiasm about my work. Knowing that you were genuinely fascinated in my topic was a massive motivation to do the best research I could. This entire dissertation would not have been possible without the incomparable Shadi Khalloul. Shadi, it was such a JOY getting to know you and learning about the Aramean community in Israel these past few years. I am deeply, deeply grateful for both our professional collaboration and the friendship that has resulted! Your community is relentlessly fascinating, and I look forward to continuing to work together for years to come. Thank you for welcoming me into your village, for introducing me to so many wonderful Arameans, and for taking me with you to countless meetings, ceremonies, and delicious meals. I will always be grateful beyond words for your assistance! iv There are a few other folks who were instrumental for the completion of this research. I have a special place in my heart for Caroline Keller-Lynn, who is not only a dear and lifelong friend, but also the person who introduced me to the Aramean movement for recognition in Israel. Carrie, thanks to your initial curiosity about the Aramean community, I now have a doctorate, and I will always be deeply grateful for your role in helping me achieve this goal (However, I may never forgive you for making me sleep in that hostel in Tiberias for two nights during fieldwork). I likewise owe enormous debts of gratitude to Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann and Chaim Motzen. Both of these individuals took considerable time out of their lives, merely out of the kindness of their hearts, to connect me to innumerable interviewees. As a researcher, and especially as a doctoral candidate trying to finish a dissertation, finding people in the field who will actually assist you with the pragmatic components of conducting research is both urgent and terrifying. Gilah, thank you so much for meeting with me and connecting me to your friends. Your involvement in so many organizations devoted to pluralism and peace continues to inspire me for how I want to live my life! Chaim, thank you first and foremost for your friendship, but also for hosting me in Jerusalem, connecting me to such a large number of folks, and for truly taking such concrete steps to assist me with my research. Your support was critical to the completion of this project and I will never forget your help. Thank you to Jacob Caponi as well for his excellent research assistance. I am so grateful to have worked with someone so insightful and trustworthy! v I was also fortunate enough these past few years to work with some of the most amazing translators anyone could ask for. Both Aliza Green and Libby Weiss did incredible work translating and transcribing the interviews I conducted in Hebrew. Thank you both for being so speedy, thorough, and personable! I would also like to thank my translator in Rwanda, my dear friend Eric Sibomana. Eric, you are one of the best people I know, and you made long, grueling hours of field work fun. That day someone told us that everything was a “secret’ will forever be one of my favorite memories! I cannot wait to visit you and your family again soon. Finally, I would also like to thank my family and friends for their invaluable support these past few years. Graduate school is extraordinarily emotionally and mentally taxing, and I would have never made it through without these relationships. First and foremost, thank you to my family for always, without question, believing in my ability. Mom, Dad, Molly, Aaron, Noy, Zach and Jessica, I am deeply grateful to have each and every one of you in my life. It is such a blessing to have people in your circle who truly only want the best for you. On that note, I want to publicly extend an extra “thank you” to my amazing mother, Sally Gertz, who answered between 1-4 phone calls a day these past few months, continually affirming that my intellectual ideas made sense, massively reducing my anxiety, and pushing me to stay focused. vi my amazing friends Shira Anderson, Liat ,שוות או לא להיות Thank you as well the rest of Arad, and Shai Horovitz. The WhatsApps, the visits (including all the way to Columbus!!), the trips, and the calls all mean more to me than I could possibly express in words. Thank you for being my emotional support system during this arduous time period and the best friends someone could ask for. I look forward to living next door to each other in Tel Aviv one day soon. Thank you as well to Francine Bendat, Emily Bernstein, Ruthie Edelstein, Zoe Jick, Dani Mahrer, Hannah Mormer and Michael Schapira for your friendship over the years. I always think of all of you when I reflect on the years I lived in Israel and am so grateful for the Shabbat dinners together. Sara and Matt Potter, thank you as well for always, always making me laugh, and to Sara especially for putting up with me these past 20 years. Suzanne Lipton, I am equally grateful that we have stayed in touch over the years, your friendship brightens my life! Finally, a big thank you to Mary McKay, whose sense of humor guided me through all the trials and tribulations of graduate school. There are two more people for whom I will always hold a special place in my heart, Samantha Boch and Ophir Samson. Samantha, thank you for being my sister and support system in Columbus. I legitimately do not know where I would be without you (I might still be wandering the streets in Clintonville?). You and Simmy are the best things that happened to me in this city, even though Simmy’s been ignoring me lately. Finally, vii Ophir Samson, I saved you for last because I pretty much blame you, entirely, for all of this. Remember our conversations in Tel Aviv, when you refused to let me go to law school? Now look what’s happened.