Jerusalem, Israel - May 25, 2020 - It is the week before Shavuos. The Israeli radio has commercial breaks with ads for cheese and dairy products. Photos of cheese products and ingredients to make cheesecakes are at the top of the supermarket flyers found in mailboxes. Lists of speakers for Tikun Leil Shavous are published. This year online, but programs and scheduled for those Israelis who identify as secular have become increasingly popular over the past few years. The celebration of Shavuos illustrates a major difference found in the Jewish world. How many non-Orthodox Jews in the United States know of Shavous, or observe the holiday? Yet in Israel, the holiday of Shavuos is part of the culture.  

Recently a nearly full-page newspaper advertisement sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation with a long list of prominent Israelis signatories, from the fields of academics, sports, business and entertainment, read as follows: "...All of Israel is responsible for one another' we hereby proclaim our commitment to strengthening the relationship, understanding and sense of shared responsibility between Israel, the American Jewish community, and all world Jewry. The strength of the Jewish People stems from a deep feeling of mutual responsibility, even when we are dispersed around the world."

Shmuel Rosner writer, editor, researcher, and senior fellow of the Jewish People Policy Institute, and Dr. Camil Fuchs, Professor of Statistics at Tel Aviv University, published "#IsraeliJudaism: Portrait of a Cultural Revolution." First published in Hebrew, and since October 2019, available in English, using data from surveys with responses from thousands of research questions. Rosner and Fuchs endeavored to present their findings in a readable volume which shows Israel today as a unique and vibrant culture, unlike other Jewish cultures, and still emerging.

Breaking down respondents to Zionist and non-Zionist was not sufficient, nor was religion, as "the division in Israel society into tribes is neither rigid nor immutable." Jewishness and Israeliness are fusing into an "Israeli Judaism" based on festivals, rituals, and customs.

Not just Shavuos, but there are the examples in observance of Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut which were recently observed, though this year with COVID-19 restrictions not as in the past.  Yom Yerushalayim, this year on the evening of May 21st, has not reached the same accepted status as a national holiday. Yom Kippur, though not mandated, the Israeli streets are free vehicles. Hannukah lights fill the streets with majority of Israelis saying they light every night. Pesach is observed, with 64% of all Israeli Jews surveyed responding they read the whole Haggadah including the sections after the meal.

Details on Shabbat observance and various definitions of Secular Israelis and Modern Zionists are presented in great detail. 

In the concluding chapter, "Are We One People?" the authors state that Jews of Israel and the United States differ on matters of faith. Their world views are different - "tribal" or universalist."  There is a divide. Jews on opposite sides of the ocean do not view their Judaism in the same way. 

Here are four examples presented contrasting American and Israeli Jews: 

Are you Orthodox?                                      Israeli 37%    American 10%

Do you light candles every Friday night?    Israeli 57%    American 23%

Do you only eat kosher at home?               Israeli 64%     American 22%

Are you married to a Jew?                          Israeli 98%     American 56%

The authors ask if almost all the Jews in Israel feel Jewish, why do they not stop arguing? If almost all of them want their children to be Jewish what are they fighting over?

They differ on the meaning and the means is theiconclusion from the research.

The discussions of #IsraeliJudaism and its relationship with Diaspora Jewry are relevant now and in the foreseeable future. With #IsraeliJudiasm now available in English, non-Hebrew readers will be able to better understand the great divide and as a means to strengthen the relationship between Israelis and the American Jewish Community and world Diaspora.

The survey included 3,005 participants who were questioned twice, online, a month apart with over one hundred questions.

Charts in the Appendix also illustrate results on other topics of political beliefs and ethnicity.

The bibliography and end notes cover 40 pages. I prefer footnotes, however, with end notes, the authors attempt to make the information gleaned from extensive data and resulting statistics accessible to the general public. 

Publisher: The Jewish People Policy Institute ISBN:978-965-7549-26-1, 282 pages, Price $19.99