Books, Arts & Manners: Theopolitics

The Coming Crisis in Israel: Private Faith and Public Policy By Norman L. Zucker MIT Press, 282 pp., $10 Faced with this carefully researched and utterly uninspired product of U.S.-style political science, one can only exclaim profana simplicitas! Like a significant minority of Israelis, Professor Zucker dislikes the fact that there are religious parties in Israel and that they try to influence policy in things great and little, as political parties are wont to do. With only the faintest undertones of indignation, Professor Zucker surveys Israeli public life sector by sector, tracing the pervasive effects of the “theopolitics” of the religious bloc.

The two main religious parties, the National Religious Party (NRP), which is both Zionist and religiously Orthodox, and the smaller Agudat Israel, which is much more Orthodox than Zionist, share the aim of aligning public law and practice with the many dictates of the Jewish religion in its Orthodox interpretation. This covers virtually every aspect of Israeli life, since the religion is holistic while the public sector embraces much of the economy.

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Edward Luttwak

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The Coming Crisis in Israel: Private Faith and Public Policy By Norman L. Zucker MIT Press, 282 pp., $10 Faced with this carefully researched and utterly uninspired product of U.S.-style political science, one can only exclaim profana simplicitas! Like a significant minority of Israelis, Professor Zucker dislikes the fact that there are religious parties in Israel and that they try to influence policy in things great and little, as political parties are wont to do. With only the faintest undertones of indignation, Professor Zucker surveys Israeli public life sector by sector, tracing the pervasive effects of the “theopolitics” of the religious bloc.

The two main religious parties, the National Religious Party (NRP), which is both Zionist and religiously Orthodox, and the smaller Agudat Israel, which is much more Orthodox than Zionist, share the aim of aligning public law and practice with the many dictates of the Jewish religion in its Orthodox interpretation. This covers virtually every aspect of Israeli life, since the religion is holistic while the public sector embraces much of the economy.