From Integration to Segregation—The Turnaround in Israel's Haredi Society in the Late 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Until the late 1970s, Israeli Haredim were known for their strict observance of halakha, their deference to their rabbis, the strictly Orthodox education of their children, and their reliable vote for Haredi political parties. Apart from these mores, most Haredim were comfortable leading a normal Israeli life: dressing as they pleased; living wherever their social, cultural, and economic needs were met; choosing an occupation or place of work that suited their capabilities and professional experience; and taking pride in the state which had accepted them as equal citizens after the Holocaust, supported their particular religious needs, and enabled them to follow their Haredi lifestyle to the full. In the wake of a process which began in the mid-1950s and culminated in the late 1970s, Israel's Haredi society adopted a way of life and attitudes which were different from those they had previously followed. The transformation was driven by three main factors: a growing frustration and the realization that the society, public space, and governing bodies of the country were becoming increasingly secularized. A second factor was the rise to power of Rabbi Menachem Mann Shach who became Haredi society's foremost leader during these years. And the third was the 1977 political turnaround when for the first time, right wing parties established the government. This provided Rabbi Shach with the political opportunity to lead the Haredi sector away from its former lifestyle which sought to integrate into Israeli society, and towards a disdain for Israel, Zionist ideology, and non-Haredi society. Rabbi Shach achieved this by imposing strict and unprecedented religious and social norms, glorified as the return to a "golden age" that never really existed.