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Youth in Israel Search for God
Benjamin Yaffe
It is very difficult to generalize when you speak about youth in Israel. When you say youth, you mean teenagers, but we have to take into consideration that in Israel we have Jews from seventy countries. Most of the teenagers were born in Israel, but quite a number of them came with their parents as babies or children. There are differences in background, in cultural and religious affiliations of the parents. The parents from Moslem countries are different from the parents from Western Europe; Jews from Russia are dissimilar from Jews from U.S.A. or South America. Every country influences a Jewish family differently. In some countries, the Jews are religious, while in other countries they are what we call traditional, but not very orthodox. Quite a number of Jews, who came from the West, had assimilated backgrounds and tried to integrate completely in a social and cultural sense with the people of the relevant country.
As far as education is concerned, the school system of Israel in the Jewish community is divided into three forms: the general state school system; the religious state schools (which consist of about 40 percent of the schools); and independent religious schools for the ultra-orthodox circles which are a small minority. The parents according to our system decide to which school to send their children, but it should be stressed here that quite a number of pupils in the general system of education come from religious or traditional homes. The difference between the twosystems, the general and the religious, is that in the religious there are prayers at school, the teachers are mainly orthodox and it is expected of the pupils to observe religious practices. In addition to this, in religious schools more time and emphasis is given to the religious content. On the other hand, in the general schools, Bible and Talmud have a prominent place in the curriculum, but there is no emphasis on the ideological religious approach. The general school will not advocate atheistic ideas or try to influence pupils in any way not to believe or to reject religion. The Minister of Education is very sensitive to this, and if it should happen, the teacher in question would be censured. The idea behind the general system is, that it would give the pupil the possibility to believe if he should so wish, but in such cases it depends not on the school but on the parents.
The influence of the family is diminishing everywhere, but in the oriental communities (which include Jews from Moslem countries) the influence of the father is still great, though in our modern times very often the influences of the street, friends, mass media, etc., can be detrimental to the continuation of the old traditions. The influence of the secular society on all parts of the community is not a matter which can be minimized.
For the sake of this analysis, it would be proper to oversimplify the issue and say that there are several main currents in the Israeli society: the first group tries to deepen religious learning and approach the traditional, orthodox lines; the second group is looking for new forms of religious Jewish expression, and the third is indifferent to religious experience. Only a very small group of people develop a certain hostility or reject religion for several reasons: pressure from parents or rebellion against them, lack of knowledge or understanding and influence from secular society.
When we speak about the first group, we can say that it is growing. The modern religious youth of Israel are studying in a great number of special Yeshivot (institute of Talmud learning) which also has secular subjects in the curriculum. At school — and this is mainly in the religious system — they are members of religious scout movements. After highschool many pupils join the « Nahal » groups (agricultural and military). They settle in special religious kibbutzim. To this category we can add the thousands of youngsters who were born and bred in the religious kibbutz movement. In the last few years, quite a number of teenagers from the general system, or sons and daughters of non-orthodox families, have been joining the ranks of the religious youth and are developing a new way of life which was not common in their own homes. We even know of quite a few cases where young people, born and bred in non-religious kibbutzim, come back to orthodoxy and have become leaders of the young religious generation. A very good illustration of this is Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who was born and educated in a leftist kibbutz, but today is one of the leading talmudic scholars, and has a wide influence on the religious youth. Another well known case is Zvi Luz, son of a former Speaker of the Knesset, who grew up in a nonreligious kibbutz, Deganya B, and today follows a completely orthodox way of life. He is a lecturer in literature at the religious university of Bar Ilan.
The second category, which is much smaller but growing, is composed of young people in towns, kibbutzim and villages who can be classified under the title which they call themselves, « Searchers for a New Way ». All of them are young people of non-religious families who are dissatisfied with the old orthodox framework. They look for new forms, new kinds of synagogues, and have a more intellectual approach to the problems of religion. Some of these young people are connected with the American Reform and Conservative rabbis who settled in Israel and formed small congregations. A special periodical is published which gives this new trend the opportunity of airing, in a new form, their « search for God ». These young people are not bound by the traditions of their parents, as in the first category, though they rebel against the rejection of religion by their parents, and they understand that without a new expression of Judaism, there is little sense in the creation of the State of Israel and its spiritual development. To sum up, we can say that this group is still in its formative stage and that it has a more « intellectual » approach than that of the first group.
The third category are those who are indifferent to religion. Some of them are children of religious families and sometimes it is because of that. After all, the tendency of young people is to reject the way of life of their parents. In many cases this is a passing phase. When they grow up they tend to return to the traditional form, attend synagogues and educate their children in the tradition of their forefathers.
As indicated before, there are extreme cases who reject religion and orthodox forms, who tend to belong to leftist groups, reject the way of life and traditions of past generations. This is a world phenomenon. Only time, education and coming of age can somewhat liquidate these tendencies.
The knowledge of the Bible- and intensive study of Judaism are very potent elements which can safeguard the continuations of traditions, but we have to take into account that the uprooting of traditional Jewish communities to settle in a new country has elements of « revolution » and tends to change people. A very interesting phenomenon in today's Israel is the many thousands of young people who come with their parents from Russia. In Russia, for close to sixty years, there was a rejection of religion, and knowledge of Judaism in a wider sense was very limited. These youngsters come without any real Jewish spiritual background and are only now absorbing a new experience. Some of them are searching for a religious experience which they have never had. The process of learning is long and again the secular atmosphere did not make it easier for them, but in spite of everything we find surprising results from first contact with Judaism and its traditions. The young new immigrants absorb much more easily the new approach to religion and Judaism.
On the whole we can be optimistic about the youth and the new way of life here, but everything takes time and is a long process. In a dynamic country like Israel nothing stagnates and everything is on the move. We can anticipate many more positive spiritual developments.
Theodore Herzl, the father of political Zionism, said that the return to the Jewish state precedes the return to Judaism. We feel that this is the case in our age and time.
Mr. Benjamin Yaffe works in the External Relations Department of the World Zionist Organization, Jerusalem.
