Godless in the Holy Land

The land of Israel sits at the crossroads of the world’s major religions with the city of Jerusalem itself considered a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Religion permeates the very air of this ancient land.  The violence that has rocked the area is based on conflicts that are, at their core, of a religious nature.

How then do citizens of Israel who profess no religious beliefs manage to live in a land where they are surrounded by religion at every turn? Where the very state they live in, though secular, is awash in religious symbols and imagery?

Donna Rosenthal, in her book The Israelis asserts that 80% of Israeli Jews are non-Orthodox. This is a huge majority that encompasses a broad variety of beliefs ranging from those that are “staunchly atheistic, agnostic, semi observant, Reform or Conservative” (232).   Rosenthal states that many of these Jews consider themselves to be very secular and not religious despite what label they give themselves. Though they may only go into a synagogue twice a year, or not at all, they still frequently take part in “religious” activities because they are so ingrained in Israeli life. “Wearing costumes on Purim, planting trees on Tu b’Shvat, partying around campfires on Lag b’Omer” are given as examples of this. Rosenthal seems to view this as perfectly acceptable and just another side of Israeli life, despite the huge contrast that exists between these types of people and those that are highly religious.

Symbol of Jewish Atheism

While many of the non-Orthodox are semi-observant (the equivalent of Christians who go to church only on Easter and Christmas in America), some who are classified as non-Orthodox have no religious faith at all. The experience of being Atheists, Agnostics, or vaguely “spiritual” in a country like Israel must be an unusual experience.

Rosenthal relates the experiences of Israelis who have been verbally harassed by Ultra-Orthodox Jews for their manner of dress, or for driving through Hasidim neighborhoods at the “wrong” times. Describing the division between the non-orthodox and the Ultra-Orthodox one Israeli in the book states “Sometimes it feels like it’s them and us… We hardly talk to each other. They despise our modern culture, they’re repulsed by us” (239).  Despite living in such a small area of land and being a single ethnicity surrounded by ‘enemies’, the huge gulf in religious beliefs seems to be driving a wedge within Israeli society and Rosenthal emphasizes this in her chapter.

A difficulty for non-religious Jews in Israel is that the government has given the authority over many key areas of daily life to the Orthodox Jewish establishment and its Rabbis. They have control basic elements of life that touch on the lives of every citizen regardless of belief- marriage, divorce and burial. ProfessorDan Mahler, chairman of the Israeli Association for the Prevention of Religious Coercion states that “while in any other developed country or society the discussion between atheism and the religion lies on the ideological plane, in Israel the STATE gives ultimate power to the orthodox establishment.  He states that this forces secular Jews to participate in religious rituals and ceremonies that they do not believe in.  It is Mahler’s viewpoint that this is an attempt to force Orthodoxy on all Jews living in Israel and an attempt by the Orthodox “delegitimize, defame and ban all other opposing Jewish trends, sects and individuals”.

What is an Atheist Jew? How can one be a Jew, which seems like a religious term and also be an Atheist?

A blogger who goes by the name Andyboy who claims to have been born in Britain, but who is now an Israeli by choice, answers this question and provides many statistics regarding religious beliefs in Israel and expressing his views as an Atheist Jew in Israel. He states that “Jewish Atheism is practiced by atheists who are ethnically, and to some extent culturally, Jewish. Because Jewishness encompasses ethnic as well as religious components, the term ‘Jewish Atheism’ does not necessarily imply any kind of contradiction”.  He also rightly states that by Orthodox Jewish law and its belief in matrilineal descent, a person who identifies themselves as Atheist who was born to a Jewish mother would be considered by Orthodox authorities as fully Jewish. In the blog it is pointed out that Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were all Jews who were also Atheists, while I found much written about Herzl and Ben-Gurion and their Atheism, whether Meir was an Atheist is less clear. She is famously quoted as saying, when asked about her belief in God: “I believe in the Jewish people and the Jewish people believe in God.”  I don’t know if this can be called proof of Atheism however.

Theodor Herzl-Atheist

David Ben-Gurion  -Atheist

Golda Meir-Atheist?

For regular Jews living in Israel getting away from religion sometimes requires a court order and that can be difficult to get. Author Yoram Kaniuk recently received a court order from a judge in Tel Aviv allowing him to register his official religious status as “without religion”.

In granting the change, the Judge, Gideon Ginat, stated “Freedom from religion is a freedom derived from the right to human dignity, which is protected by the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom”. Kaniuk, for his part emotionally stated that he feels he can now live in Israel and be considered legally Jewish by nationality, yet follow his conscience to determine his own religious identity. This article originally appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz which lends it credibility.

Jews in Israel who call themselves Atheists, Agnostic or something other than the mainstream Orthodox or Non-Orthodox categories may do so for a wide variety of reasons but they have a difficult path to follow. As Rabbi Azari says in Rosenthal’s book, “Israel is the only democracy in the Western World where Jews do not have freedom of religion, the only place where Jews deny religious freedom to Jews. What we are fighting for is the right for Israelis to have the freedom to choose how they want to be Jewish” (242).