The Unmaking of Israel (36 page)

151 “
none carried out orders”:
Yitzhak Nissim, interview.

151
avoided carrying them out:
Hagit Rotenberg, “Hasarbanim: Hasippur Ha’amiti,”
Besheva
, 6 Oct. 2005, www.inn.co.il/Besheva/Article.aspx/4963, acc. 9 Mar. 2009.

151
total police force in Israel:
Anat Bashan, “Dakat Ha-90,”
Korim Meah
, 9 Aug. 2005: 3, www.police.gov.il/meida_laezrach/pirsomim/KitveiEt/Documents/daka90.pdf, acc. 17 Nov. 2009. In a 19 Nov. 2009 statement, the Israel Police spokesperson’s office informed me that the total strength of the Israel Police, including the paramilitary Border Police, was then 26,848.

151
contingent numbered 15,000:
Stuart Cohen, “Tensions” 108.

152
opt out of army service:
Yagil Levy, “The Embedded Military: Why Did the IDF Perform Effectively in Executing the Disengagement Plan?”
Security Studies
16.3 (2007): 402–3; Amos Harel, “Nisayon Halehimah Im Hapalistinaim Umispar Hadati’im Hagavo’ah—Hotzi’u Hativat Golani Mima’agalei Hapinui,”
Ha’aretz
, 17 June 2005, www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=589104, acc. 12 Dec. 2009; Cohen, “Tensions” 109; Rotenberg, “Hasarbanim,” reports a case of Orthodox women soldiers refusing orders.

152
return to sovereign Israel:
As of June 2009, over 65,000 Israelis lived east of the security fence. See “Hagadah Hama’aravit,” www.peacenow.org.il/sites/default/files/SHeb_WBSide%20June%202009.pdf, acc. 1 Dec. 2009.

153
Od Yosef Hai yeshivah:
RNPO, request to register Od Yosef Hai as a nonprofit organization, 4 Apr. 1983.

153
illegal outpost outside Itamar:
Sasson,
Havat Da’at
101, 123, appendix 1:23.

154
religious law took precedence:
Gilad Shenhav, “Rav Tzva’i Hadash,”
NRG
, 27 Mar. 2006, www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/065/860.html, acc. 21 July 2009.

154
of educating the army:
Off-the-record interviews with IDF soldiers and education officers.

154
“a desecration of God’s name”:
Lekhu Lahamu Belahmi
(Harabbanut Hatzva’it, 2009).

155
“prevent harm” to noncombatants:
“Hakod Ha’eti Shel Tzahal,” dover.idf.il/IDF/About/Purpose/Code_Of_Ethics.htm, acc. 14 July 2009.

155
“blurring of values”:
Yuval Freund, “Kotzer Ruah Veruah Gedolah,”
Toda’ah Yehudit Letzahal Menatze’ah
, published by the Army Rabbinate for the Sabbath of 24 Jan. 2009.

155
were really at war:
Avihai Ronski, lecture at the dedication of a Torah scroll, 12 Nov. 2009, www.karnash.co.il/contentManagment/uploadedFiles/audioGallery/R.RONSKY_sefertora.wma, acc. 16 Nov. 2009.

156
price to enemy civilians:
Operation Cast Lead
(Breaking the Silence, 2009), hosting-source.bronto.com/11522//files/02/62/64/f026264/public/Breaking_the_Silence_-_Operation_Cast_Lead_report_-_ENG.pdf, acc. 15 July 2009.

157
“the army of destruction”:
“’Lo Lehitgayyes Letzahal Aharei Hagerush,’”
Arutz Sheva Hadashot
, 10 Nov. 2005, www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/129397, acc. 1 Dec. 2010.

158
“welfare office for Palestinians”:
Itai Zar, interview.

159
unsure what they’d do:
Keren Levi,
Tfisat Hazehut Hakollectivit Al Markiveiha Hashonim Bekerev Noar Dati Leumi
(The collective identity of religious Zionist youth and its relation to the willingness to serve in the Israeli army and to obey the law) (MA thesis, Bar-Ilan University, 2009).

159
alumni have become officers:
“Toldot Hamekhinah,” www.bneidavid.org/show_item.asp?levelId=62596, acc. 1 Dec. 2010.

160
“Letter to Youth”:
Eli Sadan, “Lehosif Or—Igeret Lano’ar,” www.bneidavid.org/VF/ib_items/334/%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%A3%20%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A8.pdf, acc. 24 Mar. 2009.

160
“will not be given”:
Eliezer Melamed,
Revivim
 2 (Jerusalem: Makhon Har Brakhah, 5768 [2007–8]): 299–300, 321–22.

160
in the Kfir Brigade:
Ha’aretz
, 18 Nov. 2009.

160
twenty days in the stockade:
Ma’ariv, Ynet, Ha’aretz
, 23–26 Oct. 2009.

161
removed from combat duty:
Ma’ariv, Ynet, Yediot Aharonot,
Israel Radio, 16–18 Nov. 2009.

161
from the hesder
program:
Ma’ariv
,
Ha’aretz
, and
Ynet
, 13 Dec. 2009.

162
“absolutely, he shouldn’t do it”:
“Sugiah Behesder,”
Olam Katan
, 23 Tevet 5770 (9 Jan. 2010): 4–5.

VI. The Labor of the Righteous Is Done by Others

164
of secular Zionist ideology:
Amos Oz,
A Tale of Love and Darkness
, trans. Nicholas de Lange (London: Vintage, 2005): 15–16.

165
changing in the 1950s:
Menachem Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit: Mekorot, Megamot Vetahalikhim
(Jerusalem: JIIS, 1991): 1, 63, 121.

166
and find work:
Friedman, interview; Menachem Friedman, “‘Al Hanissim’: Prihato Shel ‘Olam Hatorah’ (Hayeshivot Vehakollelim) Biyisrael,” Emanuel Etkes, ed.,
Yeshivot Uvatei Midrashot
(Jerusalem: Merkaz Shazar, 2006): 431–42; Joseph [Yosseph] Shilhav and Menachem Friedman,
Hitpashtut Tokh Histagrut: Hakehillah Haharedit Biyerushalayim
(Growth and Segregation: The Ultra-Orthodox Community of Jerusalem) (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1985): 50–52.

166
necessarily more limited:
Limited, but not absent. Ultra-Orthodox communities, presumably using the political leverage of a block vote, have gained some preferential funding, despite the separation of religion and state in the United States. An example: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development actively seeks minority contractors for certain projects. The minorities entitled to such affirmative action include “Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Asian Indian Americans, and
Hasidic Jewish Americans
” [emphasis added]. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development,
Procurement Handbook for Public Housing Agencies (7460.8 rev-2)
, chap. 15 and app. 1, www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/handbooks/pihh/74608/, acc. 30 Jan. 2011.

166
ultra-Orthodox men at work:
Alex Levac, “Anashim Be’avodah,” occasional photographic series appearing in section B of
Ha’aretz
, 29 Aug.–5 Oct. 2000. On the wider issues of
haredi
revival in the West, see Haym Soloveitchik, “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy,” in
Jews in America: A Contemporary Reader
, ed. Roberta Rosenberg Farber and Chaim I. Waxman (Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1999): 320–76.

167
ultra-Orthodoxy was vanishing:
Hok Limmud Hovah, 1949; ISA 21/11-Kaf, Knesset Education Committee minutes, 29 June 1949, 27 July 1949, and 24 Aug. 1949.

168
7,000 to 24,000 pupils:
Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit
56, 67.

168
receive funding from the state:
Hok Hinukh Mamlakhti, 1953.

168
rabbis substituting for parents:
Friedman, interview; Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit
70–72.

168
and their secular rivals:
Friedman, interview; Friedman, “‘Al Hanissim’” 431–42.

169
to 4,700 in 1968:
Naomi Mei-Ami,
Giyyus Talmidei Yeshivot Letzahal Vehok Dehiyat Sherut Letalmidei Yeshivot Shetoratam Umanutam (Hok Tal)
(Jerusalem: Knesset, Merkaz Hamehkar Vehameda, 2007): 3.

169
and other general studies:
Binyamin Baron, “Ve’ein Shi’ur Rak Hatorah Hazot,”
Eretz Aheret
, Sept.–Oct. 2007: 64; Friedman, “‘Al Hanissim’” 431–42; interviews with
haredi
informants requesting anonymity.

169
son was a full-time student:
Bezalel Cohen, interview; Yosseph Shilhav, interview; anonymous
haredi
informants, interviews.

169
age twenty
became the standard:
Shilhav and Friedman,
Hitpashtut
50–52.

170
“in [religious] practice and belief”:
Moshe Scheinfeld, “Veheshiv Lev Avot El Banim,”
Diglenu
, Nissan 5714 (April–May 1954), quoted in Friedman, “‘Al Hanissim.’”

170
a product of modernity:
Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit
80–87.

170
claiming to be old-time religion:
Laurence J. Silberstein, ed.,
Jewish Fundamentalism in Comparative Perspective: Religion, Ideology and the Crisis of Modernity
(New York: New York University Press, 1993): 27–55.

171
“the great halakhic innovators”:
Lawrence Kaplan, “The Hazon Ish: Haredi Critic of Traditional Orthodoxy,” in
The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era
, ed. Jack Wertheimer (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1992): 145–73.

171
be accepted without question:
Lawrence Kaplan 168.

172
rubble of Eastern Europe:
Soloveitchik 320–76; Menachem Friedman, “The Lost Kiddush Cup: Changes in Ashkenazic Haredi Culture—A Tradition in Crisis,” in Wertheimer,
Uses of Tradition
175–86; Shlomo Tikochinski, interview.

172
of a working laity:
Friedman, “‘Al Hanissim’” 431–42; Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit
80–87; Baron, “Ve’ein Shi’ur” 57–59.

174
pillars that supported:
Bezalel Cohen, interview; anonymous
haredi
informants, interviews.

174
Eastern European Jewish life:
Arye Naor, interview; Shilhav, interview.

174
religious and budgetary issues:
KA 0523, coalition agreement between the Likud, the National Religious Party, and Yehadut Hatorah-Agudat Yisrael, 19 June 1977.

175
other ultra-Orthodox educational institutions:
BCA ADA_00053500, coalition agreement between the Likud, the National Religious Party, Yehadut Hatorah-Agudat Yisrael, and Tenuat Mesoret Yisrael, 4 Aug. 1981.

175
honor of Jewish women:
Naor, interview.

175
passing the 40,000 mark:
Mei-Ami,
Giyyus
, 3.

176
got a cash infusion:
National Insurance Institute,
Riva’on Statisti
, Apr.–June 2010, 105; Naor, interview; Esther Toledano et al.,
The Effect of Child Allowances on Fertility
(Jerusalem: National Insurance Institute, 2009): 5–7; Dan Ben-David,
Israel’s Labor Market: Today, in the Past and in Comparison with the West
(Jerusalem: Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, 2010): 237.

176
long-term impact:
Naor, interview.

176
barely supervised by the state:
“Kol Haknasot,” www.knesset.gov.il/history/heb/heb_hist_all.htm, acc. 15 Sept. 2009; Gershom Gorenberg, “Hot Shas,”
New Republic
, 25 Jan. 1999: 11–13; Naor, interview; Friedman,
Hahevrah Haharedit
175ff. Ultra-Orthodox strength in the elections of 1996, 1999, and 2003 was partly a function of the electoral system used in those years, in which voters cast one vote for prime minister and a separate vote for a party in parliament. Shas, in particular, benefited from this system.

177
9 percent of Israeli Jews:
Daniel Gottlieb,
Ha’oni Vehahitnahagut Beshuk Ha’avodah Bahevrah Haharedit
(Poverty and Labor Market Behavior in the Ultra-Orthodox Population in Israel) (Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute, 2007): 12. There are higher estimates of the
haredi
population. See, for instance, Norma Gurovich and Eilat Cohen-Kastro,
Haharedim: Tifroset Geografit Umefayanim Demografiim, Hevratiim Vekhalkaliim Shel Ha’ukhlusiah Haharedit Biyisrael, 1996–2001
(Ultra-Orthodox Jews: Geographic Distribution and Demographic, Social and Economic Characteristics of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Population in Israel) (Jerusalem: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2004): 80, which estimates that there were 550,000
haredim
in Israel in 2002.

177
seven children in her lifetime:
Toledano,
Effect of Child Allowances
9, calculates the TFR (total fertility rate) for
haredi
women in 2001–2 as 7.24, and for other Israeli Jewish women as 2.13.

177
stipends for large families:
National Insurance Institute,
Riva’on Statisti
, April-June 2010, 91; Ben-David,
Israel’s Labor Market
237–38. Sharon’s coalition consisted of the Likud, Labor, and the militantly secularist Shinui party.