democratic at the same time? Who is a Jew? What does a "Jewish state" mean?
Such questions may sound abstract, but they have a direct bearing on our everyday life in Israel. In the beginning, most Zionists declared that "Jewish" is a purely national identity. But after a long juridical struggle, it was accepted in Israel that the only valid definition of "Jewish" was religious. Israeli law says, therefore, that a Jew is a person whose mother is Jewish, or who has converted to Judaism in a religious ceremony.
As Jews in Israel enjoy many overt and covert privileges, this definition is very important.
(When one says in Israel "I am an atheist', one is often asked in jest: "Jewish or Christian atheist?")
If Israel is a Jewish state, it seems logical that a Jew in Paris has the right to immigrate to Israel at any time and to automatically receive Israel citizenship, while a Palestinian refugee in Paris, whose family has lived in Haifa for centuries, has no right to return, much less to citizenship. (The Knesset has been able to forbid the import of pork, in direct contravention of a Basic Law. A huge part of the lands in the state belongs to a Zionist fund, whose statutes expressly forbid their sale, or even lease, to non-Jews.)
Recently it was reported that there is a secret "demographic" department in the Prime Minister's office, whose job is to encourage Jewish mothers to bear as many children as possible, while discouraging Arab mothers from doing so.
For most Israelis, this makes sense, since the aim of the Jewish state is to "ingather" as many Jews as possible. After all, that is the Zionist raison d'etre.
But who are we Israelis? Are we really Jews? A new kind of Jews? Jewish Israelis? Israeli Jews? Or just Israelis? I am a convinced atheist; I think of myself primarily as a human being and then as a Hebrewspeaking Israeli of Jewish descent. Simple? Well, in a recent public opinion poll Israelis were asked how they defined their identity. 34 percent answered "Jewish," 35 percent "Israeli," 30 percent "Jewish and Israeli."
Among those who defined themselves as left wing, 60 percent answered "Israeli." Among 12-18-year-olds, 44.5 percent answered "Israeli." (Practically nobody had the idea of identifying themselves primarily as human beings-in Hebrew: Ben Adam, child of Adam.)
Are Israelis really Jews in the accepted sense? Not long ago a Polish friend told me about one of his acquaintances in Warsaw, who had visited Israel for the first time. He told him breathlessly: "Do you know