Jewish, Israeli (Israel)

Israeli Jews are the Hebrew-speaking, Israel-born and Israel-raised Jewish majority of the State of Israel. Most are second-, third- or fourth-generation Israelis whose forebears came from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and over half have mixed Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi ancestry. Israel-born Jews are nicknamed Sabras (tzabar, the prickly-pear cactus, tough outside and sweet within). Their identity rests on Modern Hebrew, revived as a spoken language around 1900, the national schools, compulsory military service, the Jewish calendar and a shared history of immigration, war and nation-building. Most see being Jewish as a matter of ancestry, culture and nationhood more than of belief. The group is defined by language and nationality rather than by origin: the Haredi streams (Hasidic, Litvish, Chabad) are listed as groups of their own, and the origin-based groups (Moroccan, Iraqi, Russian-speaking, Ethiopian and others) overlap it, since most Israel-born children of immigrants identify first as Israelis.

Life is mainly urban and fast-paced, built around extended family, friends from school and the army, and Hebrew media. Friday-night dinner with parents anchors the week for secular and traditional families alike, even where no ritual is kept. Military service (about three years for men and two for women) is the central rite of passage, often followed by a long backpacking trip to South America or India. Food blends Ashkenazi and Mizrahi traditions: hummus, falafel, shakshuka, schnitzel and chicken soup. The year follows the Jewish calendar (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, when even secular Israelis stop driving, the Passover seder, Hanukkah) and the national days of Memorial Day and Independence Day. Families are larger than elsewhere in the developed world. There is no civil marriage, so many secular couples marry abroad, often in Cyprus.

Practice runs along a spectrum. Secular Israelis may hold a Passover seder, light Hanukkah candles, fast on Yom Kippur and circumcise their sons, while driving and shopping on the Sabbath. Traditional Israelis, many of Mizrahi background, recite kiddush, attend synagogue on festivals, keep kosher at home and visit the tombs of revered rabbis. Religious-Zionists keep Orthodox law and combine it with nationalism and army service; their yeshivot and settlements are a strong political force. The Orthodox Chief Rabbinate controls marriage, divorce, burial and conversion, a lasting source of secular resentment. Alongside growing secularism there is a movement of return to observance and a softer neo-traditional spirituality; in a national survey 21% of Jews said they had become more religious and 14% less.

The complete Bible exists in Hebrew (the Tanakh and a Modern Hebrew New Testament), along with the JESUS film, audio recordings and extensive Hebrew online media from Israeli Messianic ministries. Israel has about 240 Messianic congregations and an estimated 10,000-30,000 Jewish believers in Jesus, the largest share Russian-speaking and the second Hebrew-speaking. Faith in Jesus is widely perceived as leaving the Jewish people, a perception shaped by centuries of Christian persecution of Jews.