Judaism and modernization on the religious kibbutz /

Fishman's important work of intellectual history explores how the Orthodox Jews of the Religious Kibbutz Federation (RKF), consisting of 17 kibbutzim about 6% of the total collectives in Israel, enacted in their daily lives the tension between secular ideology and the religious culture of the Torah. Fishman argues that RKF's uniqueness lies in creating a modern religious community patterned after the secular kibbutz without sacrificing the tenets of its religious subculture. The key to bridging the inevitable conflict between tradition and modernity was the emphasis on Jewish peoplehood as a religious value in its own right. Whereas traditional Judaism regarded the people of Israel and Torah as religiously interlinked, religious Zionism distinguished between Torah and peoplehood, and transferred the primary source of Jewish unity from the former to the latter. This shift in emphasis allowed for dialog and an attitude of tolerance toward the nonobservant. It also reinforced the belief that the resettling of Eretz Israel symbolized the normative realization of a religious reality that embedded the idea of national redemption. To be read with The Religious Kibbutz Movement, ed. by A. Fishman (1957). For specialized and graduate libraries. J. Fischel; Millersville University