Zionism And Religion

Scholars from Israel and the US examine from various perspectives the relationship between nationalism and religion.

This book offers a new insight into the political, social, and religious conduct of religious-Zionism, whose consequences are evident in Israeli society today. Before the Six-Day War, religious-Zionism had limited its concern to the protection of specific religious interests, with its representatives having little share in the determination of Israel’s national agenda. Fifty years after it, religious-Zionism has turned into one of Israeli society’s dominant elements. The presence of this group in all aspects of Israel’s life and its members’ determination to set Israel’s social, cultural, and international agenda is indisputable. Delving into this dramatic transformation, the book depicts the Six-Day War as a constitutive event that indelibly changed the political and religious consciousness of religious-Zionists. The perception of real history that had guided this movement from its dawn was replaced by a "sacred history" approach that became an actual program of political activity. As part of a process that has unfolded over the last thirty years, the body and sexuality have also become a central concern in the movement’s practice, reflection, and discourse. The how and why of this shift in religious-Zionism – from passivity and a consciousness of marginality to the front lines of public life – is this book’s central concern. The book will be of interest to readers and scholars concerned with changing dynamic societies and with the study of religion and particularly with the relationship between religion and politics.

An in-depth account of the ideology driving Israel’s religious Zionist settler movements since the 1970s. The Jewish settlements in disputed territories are among the most contentious issues in Israeli and international politics. This book delves into the ideological and rabbinic discourses of the religious Zionists who founded the settlement movement and lead it to this day. Based on Hebrew primary sources seldom available to scholars and the public, Moshe Hellinger, Isaac Hershkowitz, and Bernard Susser provide an authoritative history of the settlement project. They examine the first attempts at settling in the 1970s, the evacuation of Sinai in the 1980s, the Oslo Accords and assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s, and the withdrawal from Gaza and the reaction of radical settler groups in the 2000s. The authors question why the evacuation of settlements led to largely theatrical opposition, without mass violence or civil war. They show that for religious Zionists, a “theological-normative balance” undermined their will to resist aggressively because of a deep veneration for the state as the sacred vehicle of redemption. “This is a well-written book of sound scholarship that makes an important contribution to the research on settlers’ rabbis. The authors refute popular arguments that condemn the rabbis as ‘radicals,’ instead showing how complex is their worldview.” — Motti Inbari, author of Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple?

Along with a description of the evolving religious organisations within the Zionist movement and the ensuing tensions, this study presents biographical sketches of some of the most prominent Jewish religious and nationalist figures of the period.

The Orthodox Jewish tradition affirms that Jewish exile will end with the coming of the Messiah. How, then, does Orthodoxy respond to the political realization of a Jewish homeland that is the State of Israel? In this cogent and searching study, Aviezer Ravitzky probes Orthodoxy's divergent positions on Zionism, which range from radical condemnation to virtual beatification. Ravitzky traces the roots of Haredi ideology, which opposes the Zionist enterprise, and shows how Haredim living in Israel have come to terms with a state to them unholy and therefore doomed. Ravitzky also examines radical religious movements, including the Gush Emunim, to whom the State of Israel is a divine agent. He concludes with a discussion of the recent transformation of Habad Hassidism from conservatism to radical messianism. This book is indispensable to anyone concerned with the complex confrontation between Jewish fundamentalism and Israeli political sovereignty, especially in light of the tragic death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The cause of 'Restoration' of the Jews to Zion first became a political force in the United States with the publication in 1891 of the 'Blackstone Memorial'. But the model for collaboration between Christian Restorationists and official Zionists was set by Theodor Herzl himself, and William Hechler, a British Restorationist pamphleteer, who was in fact the first of Herzl's followers to achieve audience for the Zionist leader with the Christian princes of the day. Thereafter, many significant friendships between Christian Zionists and official Zionists served to win the public mind and the cooperation of the politicians for actions that would lead to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. The author searched Presidential archives, Jewish historical libraries, and official Zionist records in both the US and Israel for evidence of dealings between official Zionists and active Christian Restorationists. Much of this record appears in print for the first time in this book, and is here linked to the much better known story of the dealings of the official Zionists with the politicians and the elected leaders of Britain and the US. This story contains many lessons for students of American politics, foreign policy, and religion - fields that sometimes intersect in ways not readily conceded by scholars.

The marriage of traditional Judaism and Zionism was never easy and today it remains greatly troubled. In his absorbing account Ehud Luz tells the story of the conflict that arose between religionists and secularists.