Bibliography — Religion and Identity

June 2025

CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles to guide understanding of the connections between religion and Israeli society.

Books

Abramov, S. Zalman. Perpetual Dilemma: Jewish Religion in the Jewish State. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1976.

Agassi, Joseph. Liberal Nationalism for Israel: Towards an Israeli National Identity. Jerusalem: Gefen, 1999.

Albright, William Foxwell. Archaeology and the Religion of Israel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1953.

Almog, Shmuel, Jehuda Reinharz, and Anita Shapira. Zionism and Religion. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998.

Anderson, George W. The History and Religion of Israel. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Antoun, Richard T., and Mary Elaine Hegland. Religious Resurgence: Contemporary Cases in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1987.

Badi, Joseph. Religion in Israel Today: The Relationship Between State and Religion. New York: Bookman Associates, 1959.

Barak-Erez, Daphne. Outlawed Pigs: Law, Religion, and Culture in Israel. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.

Ben-Rafael, Eliezer, and Yoḥanan Peres. Is Israel One? Religion, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism Confounded. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Birnbaum, Ervin. The Politics of Compromise: State and Religion in Israel. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1970.

Breger, Marshall J., Yitzhak Reiter, and Leonard M. Hammer. Sacred Space in Israel and Palestine: Religion and Politics. London: Routledge, 2012.

Cohen, Asher, and Bernard Susser. Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity: The Secular-Religious Impasse. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Cohen, Stuart. The Scroll or the Sword? Dilemmas of Religion and Military Service in Israel. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.

Cohen, Stuart, and Milton Shain. Israel: Culture, Religion, and Society 1948-1998. Cape Town: Jewish Publications, 2000.

Cohen, Yoel. God, Jews and the Media: Religion and Israel’s Media. London: Routledge, 2012.

Deshen, Shlomo A., Charles S. Liebman, and Moshe Shokeid. Israeli Judaism: The Sociology of Religion in Israel. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1995.

Don-Yeḥiya, Eliezer. Religion and Political Accommodation in Israel. Jerusalem: Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies, 1999.

El-Or, Tamar. Next Year I Will Know More: Literacy and Identity Among Young Orthodox Women in Israel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002.

Elazar, Daniel J. The Other Jews: The Sephardim Today. New York: Basic Books, 1989.

Elizur, Yuval, and Lawrence Malkin. The War Within: Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Threat to Democracy and the Nation. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2013.

Elmslie, W.A.L. How Came Our Faith: A Study of the Religion of Israel and Its Significance for the Modern World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949.

Gilbert, Josiah. Nature, the Supernatural, and the Religion of Israel. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893.

Hartman, David. Conflicting Visions: Spiritual Possibilities of Modern Israel. New York: Schocken Books, 1990.

Herman, Simon N. Israelis and Jews: The Continuity of an Identity. New York: Random House, 1970.

Kravel-Tovi, Michal. When the State Winks: The Performance of Jewish Conversion in Israel. Columbia University Press, 2017.

Lapidoth, Ruth, and Ora Ahimeir. Freedom of Religion in Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1999.

Lee, Robert Deemer. Religion and Politics in the Middle East: Identity, Ideology, Institutions, and Attitudes. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2010.

Lehmann, David, and Batia B. Siebzehner. Remaking Israeli Judaism: The Challenge of Shas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Leibowitz, Yeshayahu, and Eliezer Goldman. Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Liebman, Charles S., and Eliezer Don-Yeḥiya. Civil Religion in Israel: Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Liebman, Charles S. Pressure Without Sanctions: The Influence of World Jewry on Israeli Policy. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1977.

Liebman, Charles S. Religion, Democracy and Israeli Society. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.

Liebman, Charles S. The Religious Component in Israeli Ultra-Nationalism. Cincinnati: Judaic Studies Program, University of Cincinnati, 1985.

Liebman, Charles S., and Eliezer Don-Yeḥiya. Religion and Politics in Israel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.

Leslie, Samuel Clement. The Rift in Israel: Religious Authority and Secular Democracy. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.

Luz, Ehud. Parallels Meet: Religion and Nationalism in the Early Zionist Movement (1882-1904). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988.

Mazie, Steven V. Israel’s Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State. Lanham: Lexington, 2006.

Neuberger, Ralph Benyamin. Religion and Democracy in Israel. Jerusalem: Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies, 1997.

Peled, Yoav, and Horit Herman Peled. The Religionization of Israeli Society. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2018.

Rabinowicz, Tzvi. Hasidism and the State of Israel. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982.

Ravitschi, Aviezer. Religion and State in Jewish Philosophy: Models of Unity, Division, Collision and Subordination. Jerusalem: Israel Democracy Institute, 2002.

Rozin, Orit. A Home for All Jews: Citizenship, Rights, and National Identity in the New Israeli State. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2016.

Salmon, Yosef. Religion and Zionism: First Encounters. Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2002.

Sapir, Gideon, and Daniel Statman. State and Religion in Israel: A Philosophical-Legal Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Schiff, Gary S. Tradition and Politics: The Religious Parties of Israel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1977.

Schwartz, Dov. Religious-Zionism: History and Ideology. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2009.

Sharkansky, Ira. Ambiguity, Coping, and Governance: Israeli Experiences in Politics, Religion, and Policymaking. Westport: Praeger, 1999.

Sharkansky, Ira. The Politics of Religion and the Religion of Politics: Looking at Israel. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2000.

Sharkansky, Ira. Rituals of Conflict: Religion, Politics, and Public Policy in Israel. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996.

Shelef, Nadav G. Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925-2005. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.

Tepe, Sultan. Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.

Waxman, Chaim I. Religious Zionism Post Disengagement: Future Directions. New York: Michael Scharf Publication Trust of the Yeshiva University Press, 2008.

Weiss, Susan M., and Netty C. Gross-Horowitz. Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel’s Civil War. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012.

Wolff, Laurence. The Reform Movement in Israel: Past, Present, and Future. Research Paper 13. Joseph and Alama Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, University of Maryland, July 2015.

Yadgar, Yaacov. Secularism and Religion in Jewish-Israeli Politics: Traditionists and Modernity. London: Routledge, 2011.

Zarembski, Laura. The Religious-Secular Divide in the Eyes of Israel’s Leaders and Opinion Makers. Jerusalem: Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies, 2002.

Zucker, Norman L. The Coming Crisis in Israel: Private Faith and Public Policy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.

Articles

Aran, Gideon, “From Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion: The Roots of Gush Emunim,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 2 (1986): 116-143.

Avi-Hai, Avraham, “The Religious-Secular Axis: Conflict and Consensus,” in Ben-Gurion, State-Builder: Principles and Pragmatism, 1948-1963. New York: Wiley, 1974.

Barro, Robert J., and Rachel M. McCleary, “Which Countries Have State Religions?” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 120, No. 4 (November 2005): 1331-1370.

Belsky, Florence, “Religion and Education in Israel,” Comparative Education Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (June 1958): 22-27.

Ben-Rafael, Eliezer, “The Faces of Religiosity in Israel: Cleavages or Continuum?” Israel Studies, Vol. 13, No. :3 (2008): 89-113.

Ben-Zadok, Efraim, “State-Religion Relations in Israel: The Subtle Issue Underlying the Rabin Assassination,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 8, Nos. 1-2 (2001/2002): 139-146.

Berman, Eli, “Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist’s View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 115, No. 3 (August 2000): 905-953.

Berman, Eli, “Subsidized Sacrifice: State Support of Religion in Israel,” Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1999): 167-200.

Borthwick, Bruce M., “Religion and Politics in Israel and Egypt,” Middle East Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2 (1979): 145-163.

Boyarin, Daniel, and Jonathan Boyarin, “Diaspora: Generation and the Ground of Jewish Identity,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1993): 693-725.

Caplan, Kimmy, “God’s Voice: Audiotaped Sermons in Israeli Haredi Society,” Modern Judaism, Vol. 17, No. 3 (October 1, 1997): 253-279.

Cochran, Judith A., “Israel: Divided by Religion and Education,” DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Spring 2017): 32-55.

Cohen, Stuart A., “Tensions Between Military Service and Jewish Orthodoxy In Israel: Implications Imagined and Real,” Israel Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1 (2007): 103-126.

Conway, David, “Judaism and Liberalism: Israel’s Economic Problem With Its Haredim,” Economic Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2017): 240-253.

Dashefsky, Arnold, and Bernard Lazerwitz, “The Role of Religious Identification in North American Migration to Israel,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 22, No. 3 (September 1983): 263-275.

Deshen, Shlomo, “Israeli Judaism: Introduction to the Major Patterns,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1978): 141-169.

Don-Yehiya, Eliezer, “Changes and Developments in Israeli Civil Religion: 1982–2017,” Israel Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (2018): 189-196.

Don‐Yehiya, Eliezer, “Jewish Messianism, Religious Zionism and Israeli Politics: The Impact and Origins of Gush Emunim,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1987): 215-234.

Don-Yehiya, Eliezer, “Orthodox Jewry in Israel and in North America,” Israel Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2005): 157-187.

Don‐Yehiya, Eliezer, “Religious Leaders in the Political Arena: The Case of Israel,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1984): 154-171.

Don-Yehiya, Eliezer, and Charles S. Liebman, “The Symbol System of Zionist-Socialism: An Aspect of Israeli Civil Religion,” Modern Judaism, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1981): 121-148.

Edelman, Martin, “A Portion of Animosity: The Politics of the Disestablishment of Religion in Israel,” Israel Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2000): 204-227.

El-Or, Tamar, “‘Are They Like Their Grandmothers?’ A Paradox of Literacy in the Life of Ultraorthodox Jewish Women,” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1 (March 1, 1993): 61-81.

Eliash, Shulamit, “The Political Role of the Chief Rabbinate of Palestine During the Mandate: Its Character and Nature,” Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1 (January 1, 1985): 33-50.

Englard, Izhak, “Law and Religion in Israel,” The American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 1, 1987): 185-208.

Ezrachi, Elan, “The Quest for Spirituality Among Secular Israelis,” in Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (eds.), University Press of New England (2003): 315-322.

Finkelman, Yoel, “The Ambivalent Haredi Jew,” Israel Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2018): 264-293.

Fisher, Netanel, “Who Is a Jew in Israel?” in “Who Is a Jew?”: Reflections on History, Religion, and Culture, Leonard J. Greenspoon (ed.), Purdue University Press (2014): 129-140.

Fishman, A., “Judaism and Modernization: The Case of the Religious Kibbutzim,” Social Forces, Vol. 62, No. 1 (September 1983): 9-31.

Frayer, Lauren, “As Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Enter the Workforce, High-Tech Beckons,” NPR, November 12, 2016.

Friedman, Menachem, “The Haredi Ultra-Orthodox Society: Sources Trends and Processes,” Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 41 (1991): 101-122.

Gavizon, Ruth, “The Jewish State: A Justification,” in New Essays on Zionism, David Hazony, Yoram Hazony, and Michael B. Oren (eds.). Jerusalem: Shalem Press (2006): 3-36.

Halmai, Gabor, “Constitutionalism, Law and Religion in Israel: A State’s Multiple Identities,” Journal of Civil and Legal Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2016).

Hartman, Donniel, “Suspending the Kotel Agreement: An Affront to Zionism,” The Times of Israel, June 26, 2017.

Hartman, Harriet, and Moshe Hartman, “Denominational Differences in the Attachment to Israel of American Jews,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 41, No. 3 (March 2000): 394-417.

Hofnung, Menachem, “Ethnicity, Religion and Politics in Applying Israel’s Conscription Law,” Law and Policy, Vol. 17, No. 3 (1995): 311-340.

Irwin, William A., “The Study of Israel’s Religion,” Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1957): 113.

Isaacs, Miriam, “Contentious Partners: Yiddish and Hebrew in Haredi Israel,” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 138 (1999): 101-122.

Kaplan, Steven, and Hagar Salamon, “Ethiopian Jews in Israel: A Part of the People or Apart From the People?” in Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (eds.), University Press of New England (2003): 118-148.

Kopelowitz, Ezra, and Matthew Diamond, “Religion That Strengthens Democracy: An Analysis of Religious Political Strategies in Israel,” Theory and Society, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1998): 671-708.

Leibowitz, Yeshayahu, “State and Religion,” Jerusalem Quarterly, 14 (Winter 1980): 59-67.

Lewin, Eyal, “The Clash of Civil Religions: A Paradigm for Understanding Israeli Politics,” Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (December 2013).

Liebman, Charles S., “Religion and Democracy in Israeli Society,” in Israeli Democracy Under Stress, by Ehud Sprinzak, Larry Diamond (ed.), Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner (1993): 273-291.

Liebman, Charles S., and Eliezer Don-Yehiya, “The Dilemma of Reconciling Traditional Culture and Political Needs: Civil Religion in Israel,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (October 1983): 53-66.

Lifshitz, Brahyahu, “Israeli Law and Jewish Law — Interaction and Independence,” Israel Law Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1990): 507-524.

Lipshits, Hadar Moshe, and Michal Neubauer-Shani, “The State-Religion Issue in Israel: Is the Consociational Model Still Alive?” Israel Affairs, Vol. 25, No. 2 (April 2019): 383-399.

Loewenberg, F.M., “Is the Western Wall Judaism’s Holiest Site?” Middle East Quarterly (Fall 2017).

Malach, Gilad, and Yohanan Plesner, “Supreme Court Strikes Down Ultra-Orthodox Exemption From Military,” Israel Democracy Institute, September 13, 2017.

Matras, Judah, “Religious Observance and Family Formation in Israel: Some Intergenerational Changes,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 69, No. 5 (March 1964): 464-475.

Meek, Theophile J., “Monotheism and the Religion of Israel,” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 61, No. 1 (March 1942): 21-43.

Oren, Stephen, “Continuity and Change in Israel’s Religious Parties,” Middle East Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 1, 1973): 36-54.

Peleg, Ilan, “Israel’s Constitutional Order and the Kulturkampf: The Role of Ben-Gurion,” Israel Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1998): 230-250.

Petty, Aaron R., “The Concept of Religion in the Supreme Court of Israel,” Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2014): 211-268.

Porat, D., “‘Amalek’s Accomplices’ — Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust: Anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodoxy in Israel During the 1980s,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 27, No. 4 (October 1992): 695-729.

Ram, Uri, “Why Secularism Fails? Secular Nationalism and Religious Revivalism in Israel,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 21, Nos. 1-4 (2008): 57-73.

Rebhun, Uzi, “Major Trends in the Development of Israeli Jews: A Synthesis of the Last Century,” in Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (eds.), Lebanon, University Press of New England (2004): 3-19.

Rebhun, Uzi, and Chaim I. Waxman, “Judaism in the Public Sphere,” in Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (eds.), Lebanon, University Press of New England (2004): 228-232.

Rubinstein, Amnon, “State and Religion in Israel,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 2, No. 4 (October 1967): 107-121.

Sabbah, Michel, “Religion and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics & Culture, Vols. 20/21, Nos. 4/1 (December 2015): 7-11.

Segal, M.H., “The Religion of Israel Before Sinai,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 52, No. 1 (July 1961): 41-68.

Sered, Susan Starr, “Women, Religion, and Modernization: Tradition and Transformation Among Elderly Jews in Israel,” American Anthropologist, Vol. 92, No. 2 (1990): 306-318.

Schweid, Eliezer, “The Culture and Religion of Israel: What to Teach,” in Jewish Identity in Modern Israel: Proceedings on Secular Judaism and Democracy, Naftali Rothenberg and Eliezer Schweid (eds.) (2002): 40-47.

Shain, Yossi, “Jewish Kinship at a Crossroads: Lessons for Homelands and Diasporas,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 117, No. 2 (2002): 279-309.

Sharabi, Asaf, “Religion and Modernity: Religious Revival Movement in Israel,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 44, No. 2 (April 2015): 223-248.

Sharot, Stephen, “Israel: Sociological Analyses of Religion in the Jewish State,” Sociological Analysis, 51 (1990): 563-576.

Sharot, Stephan, Hannah Ayalon, and Eliezer Ben-Rafael, “Secularization and the Diminishing Decline of Religion,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 27, No. 3 (March 1986): 193-207.

Shenhav, Yehouda, “Modernity and the Hybridization of Nationalism and Religion: Zionism and the Jews of the Middle East as a Heuristic Case,” Theory and Society, Vol. 36, No. 1 (February 2007): 1-30.

Shetreet, Shimon, “Reflections on Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State,” Israel Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1997): 190-197.

Shochetman, Eliav, “Israeli Law and Jewish Law — Interaction and Independence: A Commentary,” Israel Law Review, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1990): 525-536.

Skipwith, Grey H., “The Origins of the Religion of Israel,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (April 1900): 381-414.

Smoocha, Sammy, “Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Symbolic or Real?” in Jews in Israel: Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Uzi Rebhun and Chaim Isaac Waxman (eds.), Lebanon, University Press of New England (2004): 47-80.

Stadler, Nurit, and Eyal Ben-Ari, “Other-Worldly Soldiers? Ultra-Orthodox Views of Military Service in Contemporary Israel,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2003): 17-48.

Stadler, Nurit, Eyal Ben-Ari, and Einat Mesterman, “Terror, Aid and Organization: The Haredi Disaster Victim Identification Teams (ZAKA) in Israel,” Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 3 (2005): 619-651.

Stadler, Nurit, “Is Profane Work an Obstacle to Salvation? The Case of Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews in Contemporary Israel,” Sociology of Religion, Vol. 63, No. 4 (2002): 455.

Stadler, Nurit, “Playing With Sacred/Corporeal Identities: Yeshivah Students’ Fantasies of Military Participation,” Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2007): 155-178.

Stern, Yedidia Z., “Religion, State, and the Jewish Identity Crisis in Israel,” Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings (2017).

Strum, Philippa, “Women and the Politics of Religion in Israel,” Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4 (November 1, 1989): 483-503.

Tabory, Ephraim, “Crossing the Threshold: State, Religion, and Opposition to Legally-Imposed Religious Weddings,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 50, No. 3 (March 1, 2009): 261-276.

Tabory, Ephraim, “Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel: A Social and Religious Profile,” The American Jewish Year Book, 83 (January 1, 1983): 41-61.

Tessler, Mark A., “The Identity of Religious Minorities in Non-Secular States: Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 20, No. 3 (July 1978): 359-373.

Triger, Zvi, “Freedom From Religion in Israel: Civil Marriages and Cohabitation of Jews Enter the Rabbinical Courts,” Israel Studies Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2012): 1-17.

Wald, Kenneth D., and Samuel Shye, “Interreligious Conflict in Israel: The Group Basis of Conflicting Visions,” Political Behavior, Vol. 16, No. 1 (March 1994): 157-178.

Weissbrod, Lilly, “Religion as National Identity in a Secular Society,” Review of Religious Research, Vol. 24, No. 3 (March 1983): 188-205.

Yaron, Zvi, “Religion in Israel,” American Jewish Yearbook, 76 (1976): 41-90.

Yuval-Davis, Nira, “The Bearers of the Collective: Women and Religious Legislation in Israel,” Feminist Review, 4 (1980): 15-27.

Zelniker, Shimshon, and Michael Kahan, “Religion and Nascent Cleavages: The Case of Israel’s National Religious Party,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 9, No. 1 (October 1976): 21-48.