Religious Secular Divide

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Israel is a state founded on the ideology of being a land for the Jewish people. To be able to accomplish this feat, it has been reasoned by Theodor Herzl, in his publication “Der Judenstaat” (1896), that the Jewish people see themselves as more than a religious body, but rather as a nation which is able to create political institutions in a land of its own. While presenting this idea, Herzl also put down a separation of church and state, creating a non-theocratic state. He claimed that “Faith unites us, knowledge gives us freedom.” The debate over how much of an input religion should have in Israeli policy and public life is continuing today. Different groups of Israelis with diverse religious observances often have distinct views of the role that Judaism should have in the running of the Jewish State. This is reflected in the voting patterns of people with differing levels of religiosity, which has an effect on the level of religious impact on Israeli laws and society.
The Ultra-orthodox community, or Haredim, are arguably the most religious group within the Jewish community throughout the world. According to the 2009 census data, Israel had a total population of 7.6 million, of which 5.7 million were Jewish, making up 75.5% of the total population. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics published a paper in 2013 with estimates of the number of Haredim, ultra-orthodox Jews, living in Israel in 2009. The results showed that there were approximately 750 thousand, 9.9% of the total Israeli population. Of this number 441.6 thousand of the Haredim were under the age of 20. The Central Bureau of Statistics predicts that Haredim will have a higher growth rate due to their higher birth rate and lower death rate than the general popu...

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... June 1, 2014.
Stadler, Nurit. 2007. "Playing with Sacred/Corporeal Identities: Yeshiva Students' Fantasies of Military Participation." Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society 13 (2): 155-178. Accessed May 10, 2014.
2010. "The population of Israel 1990-2009 Demographic characteristics." United Nations Statistics Division. December. Accessed May 20, 2014. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/wsd/docs/Israel_wsd_brochure.pdf.
The State of Israel. 2014. National Religious Party. Accessed June 2, 2014. http://knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=3.
—. 2014. Shas. Accessed June 2, 2014. http://knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=2.
—. 2010. Tal Commision. Accessed June 2, 2014. http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/tal_eng.htm.
—. 2014. United Torah Judaism. Accessed June 2, 2014. http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=8.

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