“Whether one looks in the political, social, or cultural and religious domains,” writes Neil Rogachevsky, “there has been a continuing and rather rapid shift” of the Jewish world’s center of gravity from the Diaspora to the Jewish state. The Israeli political scientist-turned-parliamentarian Yossi Shain, in his new book, The Israeli Century, documents this shift, and argues that it is an unambiguously good thing, the “culmination” of Jewish history. Without disputing his premise, Rogachevsky notes a parallel trend that Shain seems to underappreciate:
The limitation in the argument that Judaism is being Israelized is the fact that Israel itself is becoming more and more Jewish. And the Judaism of Israel is not simply a Bible- and Hebraic-culture-centric Judaism sought, at various moments, by David Ben-Gurion and other founders of Israel. Diaspora Judaism has struck back.
The Judaization of Israel is, however, somewhat hard to see because very much of it is in flux. Traditions and observance are growing across the Israeli public sphere. But what forms will Jewish belief and practice take in the years ahead? Will mysticism grow still stronger? Will a more rationalistic Orthodoxy, compatible with both patriotism and liberalism, continue to grow? Will the older and newer Diaspora religious movements (Conservative, Reconstructionist, etc.) finally take off in Israel even as they fade in North America? Judaism may be transformed in Israel but it will not escape the forms and practices developed in the Diaspora. It may well be that the greatest role Diaspora Jews can play in an Israeli century to come is to help Israelis think through the politics of religion.
Read more on Tablet: https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/rogachevsky-review