“Centrist” Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism

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chapter 7 Two Orthodox Cultures: “Centrist” Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism

Shlomo Fischer

Introduction

In this paper I will compare two contemporary Jewish Orthodox cultures, American “Centrist” Orthodoxy and Israeli Religious Zionism. I argue that despite common Orthodox religious orientations and a shared right-wing political orientation, these two communities have significantly different underlying religious cultures. Israeli Religious Zionism is a Romantic nationalist culture with a strong expressivist dimension; that is, a strong emphasis on self-expres- sion and notions such as authenticity. American Centrist Orthodoxy continues the traditional Jewish pattern of emphasis upon religious heteronomy; that is, the Torah and God’s commandments are imposed externally on the Jew. As a result of these cultural differences, the two communities differ in terms of cultural phenomena such as the place of art and literature and, to a certain extent, in regard to the type of interpretation of Biblical and Talmudic sources that is current, favored, and valued. Underlying these differences are fundamen- tal differences concerning how the self and its relation to religious practice, authority, and tradition are conceived in the two communities. I would like to conduct this comparison mainly through two Orthodox publications: Makor Rishon in Israel, and The Jewish Press in New York. Both are leading newspapers for their respective communities. The Jewish Press was founded in the 1960s and targets the Centrist Orthodox community (Beckerman, 2010). The Haredi community in America is served by English versions of two Haredi newspapers that appear in Israel, Yated Neeman and Hamodia. The Jewish Press is published in New York, but sells the newspaper nationally and has a weekly circulation of 50,000. Makor Rishon was founded in 1997 and bills itself as an “Israeli-Nationalist” paper. While it does have Israeli secular writers and editors, its publisher as well as many of its writers and editors are Religious Zionist, as is most of its reading public. In 2007 it merged with the historic newspaper of the National Religious Party, Hatzofeh, and its weekend edition has many features geared to the Religious Zionist community. There is another freely distributed newspaper weekly aimed at the religious

Zionist public, BeSheva, that is aimed at the more sectarian religiously right- wing of this public. It is much smaller than the Makor Rishon weekend edition and has more restricted coverage. Even so, in a more cautious fashion it echoes many themes that, as we shall see below, are reflected in Makor Rishon. Again, there are many similarities between the two newspapers. They are both right-wing and as noted they both have an Orthodox orientation (though as indicated, Makor Rishon prefers to bill itself as “nationalist,” not as “Orthodox”). It should be noted that Makor Rishon tries to present itself as a primary newspaper; that is, as providing complete coverage and commentary in all spheres, political, economic, social, cultural etc. Nevertheless, these general sections are less extensive than they are in the major Israeli dailies such as Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot and even Israel Hayom. What Makor Rishon really provides is right-wing and religious political news and commentary, and an extensive weekend features section. It is in regard to this last section that its meaningful differences with the Jewish Press emerge and especially differences regarding the treatment of Judaism and culture. I illustrate this claim through a description of the Makor Rishon Shabbat supplement, and by a comparison with the Shabbat and Jewish Holiday features in The Jewish Press. The Shabbat supplement is one of the paper’s most widely read sections especially by religious Zionists and in fact serves as a central forum for religious Zionist discourse concerning Jewish religious texts and their interpretation, the nature of Jewish religious practice and obliga- tions, women’s issues, Messianism, art and literature and their relation to the Jewish religion, and much else besides. In fact, if ones wishes to make a public statement to the religious Zionist community concerning religion, culture, and social issues, the Shabbat supplement of Makor Rishon is a favorite venue. Articles published there are widely read, and major and controversial articles almost always merit an avalanche of reactions, comments etc., that are published in the ensuing weeks. The full name of the Shabbat Supplement is Shabbat: The Supplement for Torah, Thought, Literature and Art. It follows a set format and has regular features. In order to get a sense of the patterns of the supplement, I have examined and recorded the features of sixteen weekly supplements in a period stretching from April to September 2013. The cover of the supplement always contains a picture of a work of art. The work in question can either be a painting or a drawing or a photograph. In the sample that I examined, about 80% of the time the theme of the work of art was a general one; it was not specifi- cally religious or Jewish. Thus it featured, for example, a painting by Picasso, seagulls, a photograph of gypsies in Romania. Even when the theme was spe- cifically Jewish or Israeli, it tended towards the depiction of general aspects