Remaking Israeli Judaism (review)

The growing research literature on the Israeli Shas phenomenon has been moving over the years from a predominantly political perspective to one focused on it as a socio-religious movement. This volume is part of that wave. The authors do not only address their subject from a broad sociological perspective, but also bring with them expertise in research on Latin American Catholicism and Pentecostalism, and they seek to illuminate the Israeli phenomenon through that experience. The book has an informal ethnographic dimension: over a period of three years the authors visited unspecified numbers of Shas-linked schools, yeshivas, synagogues, study groups, etc., and spoke to activists upon whom they came by “networking.”

On the basis of this fieldwork and their reading of the pertinent literature, the authors offer a portrait of Shas which emphasizes its being akin to Evangelist movements, in Jewish terms a “teshuva” movement, of a kind with Habad hasidism. The Shas teshuva movement is linked to ethnic and social resentment. But though both secular and orthodox Ashkenazim have discriminated against Sephardim, the resentment of Shas is focused harshly only upon the secular sector. The reason, the authors suggest, interestingly, is that since relatively few Sephardim in the early decades of the State had personal experience with orthodox Ashkenazim, they remain to this day relatively unaware of the discrimination practiced in that sector.

An interesting finding of the book is that some of the Shas schools, despite the vehement anti-intellectualism of the movement, have modern quality programs in secular subjects such as physical education and science. Also, the authors find, the Shas movement is moderate and gradual in the religious demands it poses to new recruits. Further, in contrast to the situation among Ashkenazic haredim, in Shas returnees are acceptable for positions of prominence and leadership. The authors explain this openness as due to the overall expansiveness of Shas and its consequent need for skilled professionals to man administrative and technical positions (such as in the radio stations affiliated with Shas, and in government positions they command). Similarly, in the area of women’s rights, Shas women, while encouraged to high fertility, are invited to be publicly active for the movement, and also to engage in professional work. The movement is involved in private college-level training facilities (separate for men and women).

The book offers many arresting theses based on insights on the Israeli situation, supported by Latin American findings. In both cases, Shas and Latin America, the authors claim, the new religious movements entail the recruits’ joining a new community, eventually severing ties with their community of origin, and in time, becoming heavily dependent on the new community. One aspect of this is marriage at a young age (with the support of the religious community) and concomitant parental disempowerment and attrition of kinship. Another thesis is that new religious recruits will be particularly enthusiastic and committed devotees, because of their dependence on their new community. A further thesis is that in common with evangelical movements world-wide, Shas has a marked hierarchical pattern of authority and a centralized system for the interpretation of religious codes. All these assertions are reasonable in theory, but they invite presentation of rigorous evidence, and that we are not offered in this book.

The most sweeping thesis of the study is that “conversion-based movements reshape religion everywhere, including evangelical Christianity, Pentecostalism and Islamic renewal. (p. 3). The universal element of this statement need not concern us, but does it apply to the local Israeli scene, and to Shas in particular? In entitling their book “Remaking Israeli Judaism” and subtitling it “The Challenge of Shas,” the authors demonstrate their conviction that the role of Shas in religious change is indeed pivotal. But the issue might have been explored in greater depth. Granting the force of Shas in Israeli religion and politics, the book exaggerates some points and glosses over many reservations. One, the overall Sephardic proportion of Israeli Jews is probably not much over one-third...