Word: secularizing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Today Israel's secular majority is signaling that it has had enough. Says Ronni Milo, the mayor of Tel Aviv and a leader in the secular vanguard: "We are talking here of the basic rights of people to choose their own way of life...
...secularists have been reinforced by the immigration to Israel in the past decade of more than 800,000 people from the former Soviet Union, the vast majority of whom are nonreligious. Today two-thirds of Israelis define themselves as secular. Included within the religious third are 10% of the general population who belong to the ultra-Orthodox, or haredim (literally "those who fear"), distinguished by the black hats and robes worn...
...Secular women are riled by Orthodoxy's chauvinism. Last June in Jerusalem rioting haredim pelted men and women with excrement for praying at the Western Wall in a mixed group. In 1996 haredi "modesty patrols" began attacking women on Jerusalem's streets for exposing their arms or legs. Secular women were offended last year when Rabbi Yosef pronounced that men should not walk between two women, just as they should not walk between two donkeys, lest they take on the attributes of these lesser beasts...
Relations with the Palestinians are another fault line. Some 56% of secular Israelis support the peace process, compared with only 9% of the haredim and 24% of the so-called modern Orthodox. One group of rabbis went so far as to instruct army soldiers to disobey any order to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, an invitation to insurrection. A survey last fall showed that 27% of religious teenagers condone the murder of Rabin...
Meanwhile, the religious fear that if their secular brothers continue to disobey the commandments of their religion, as they interpret them, they will stop being Jews. Says Friedman: "They fear that one morning they will wake up, and there will be no Jewish people anymore." Even some secularists are worried that too many in their ranks are being alienated from their heritage because of disgust with the behavior of the Orthodox. Says author Yehoshua: "I say, You, secular person, open the Talmud for yourself. We need the religious memory and tradition not to find God but to find the historical...