Elad’s blog

Something happens to the ultra-orthodox groups in Israel. Surge currents are bringing changes. It is slow, it is silent, but it is definitely there. Pay attention.

Today the gay community held a public event in Jerusalem, for the fifth year. It passed peacefully, but was preceeded by very high social tension, and growing violence from the orthodox groups who tried to prevent the event. At first, I thought the orthodox were just trying to take advantage of the current political weakness in Israel to change the status-quo from what happened in previous years; today I had a talk with my friend Ofir, and read some articles in the weekend papers. Later I rethought a bit about what went over there - and then about what’s going on with the ultra-religeous groups in Israel in general.

The riots the orthodox issued against the gay parade, after the Rabbies ordered them to, actually put them - at least the simple people in their community - in face of a problem: what to tell the children? Sex, and certainly gay sex, is a huge taboo in the religeous society; and many people there, so it seems, didn’t know exactly what to tell to their children and how to explain to them what the fuss is all about.

It posed an even greater challenge: what do they care about what secular Israel is doing? The ultra orthodox were traditionally against the existence of the jewish state in Israel and did not recognize any of its institutes. What happened that they suddenly tried to intervene with the state? It is not that the “holiness of Jerusalem” was at any stake - the gays didn’t even want to get close to the ancient or religeous parts of the city. I think it is a symptom for a deeper change. The orthodox communities in Israel silently open to the state.

Once you think of it, there are many signs. Here are just a few events from the past few years:

• The mayor of Jerusalem. The mayor of Jerusalem in the past few years is an orthodox guy. He appears in the world and in the public as the mayor of the capital of Israel. The orthodoxes in Jerusalem had had the power to put a mayor from their community decades ago - they intentionally avoided this, because they didn’t want their man as an official representative at that specific post.
• Military brigade. Quitely and surely, the ultra-orthodox brigade in the Israeli army had become a reality. It is now a fighting batallion that recieves fresh drafts every year. A decade ago it was only a dream.
• Volunteer help - most notably, the organization to help clean the murder scenes after terror attacks and to save lives, but many other things that are not aimed specifically at the orthodox communities, but at the general public. Note specifically about the first organization, that its executive took part at the independence day celebrations - need any more evidences?
• Talks about an ultra-orthodox minister, from the Aschkenazi public. It was unheard of just 5 years ago. Traditionally, this group always took only deputy ministers posts (even when they had enough political power to get ministers), because they didn’t want to be a full part of the government. It changed.
• Working men. Still not because they want to, but one of the effects of the policy Netanyahu had a few years ago as minister of treasury is that indeed I see ultraorthodoxes that go to work, and study Torrah only in the evenings. It is in small numbers, but it is there.
• Involvement in state affairs. For example, a few years ago, when Israel celebrated its Jubilee (50 anniversary), the orthodoxes issued a huge debate about which clothes some dance-group used at the celebrations. This was a clear involvements in affairs of the state that they presumable ignore.

There are more examples, but I think the frame is clear: the orthodox society is slowly and quitely becoming open to the general society. Deep currents will eventually bring to the assimilation of these social groups in the general state. As always, life is stronger then any Rabbi and you can’t simply ignore the surrounding world for dozens of years.

Anthropologists and social science researchers can find a lot of interesting work here. Watch for the ultra-orthodox. They won’t admit it, but something is moving there.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 at 22:39 and is filed under Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.