A. Defining Culture – Human and National

To begin with, the word ‘culture’ requires definition. This is one of the more elastic terms in the lexicon, containing several possible meanings. This essay is based on two definitions that need to be examined simultaneously; it will draw on the connection between them, and the way in which they influence each other. The first defines human culture as the total way of life that people live; the other defines it in terms of artistic achievements in a variety of creative fields.

Thus, the culture (in either sense) of a particular national group clearly reflects the specific way of life or creative expression that it lives or produces. This is always quite difficult to characterize since – especially in the modern world – very few nations have a lifestyle that totally differs from that of their neighbors. Indeed, in the modern world of the so-called ‘global village’, in which Western culture is so all-encompassing, it is increasingly difficult to speak of distinct national cultures. With the decline of traditional cultures in many parts of the world, the distinctions between them have clearly waned as well. This subject will be discussed later with regard to developments that have taken place over the last few generations in the very young culture of Israel.

B. Jewish Culture, Religious…

Firstly, however, there is the question of Jewish secular culture and its roots. ‘Culture’ is a neutral term that reflects a group’s way of life and its creative expressions, regardless of its ideology. If a group’s way of life is based on a particular religious ideology, then their culture is likely to be – at center – a religious one. This was indeed the case for the Jewish people for thousands of years: their dominant, unifying ideology was religious. According to this ideology, the group’s way of life and creative impulses existed under the umbrella of a belief that this was God’s world and that God had mandated a particular way of life for them.

According to official Jewish ideology as it developed over thousands of years – most especially from the destruction of the Second Temple with the rise of Rabbinic ideology as the national belief – all life was to be lived in terms of religious observance. The legitimacy of specific modes of behavior was judged according to its degree of conformity with this ideology. Where certain aspects of Jewish life and creative output were seen to conflict with these principles, they were condemned or considered devoid of value. It is impossible, however, to generalize, as if the Jews’ way of life in different times and places was identical: the lives of medieval Jews in Spain and in the German ‘Ashkenazi’ lands differed in many aspects. Nevertheless, common cultural presuppositions and ideology united Jews all over the world.

C. …and Secular

This ideology started to break down among European Jewry from the time of the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment), whose roots can be traced to the late 18th century. Gathering strength during the 19th century, this movement undermined many of the suppositions on which the Jewish way of life had formerly been built. From this era onward, the idea of a legitimate secular culture became increasingly accepted among certain Jewish sectors.

This is not to suggest that all those Jews who accepted the validity of secular culture abandoned all of the traditional Jewish ideas about God and God’s world. However, many no longer accepted the idea that all aspects of life must be lived under the total control of Halacha and the Rabbinic agenda. As the legitimacy of secular expression became increasingly accepted, the way was paved for new ideas, ideologies and ways of life that had previously been shunned.

D. Zionism: a Movement of Secular or Religious Culture?

This secular mode of expression gave birth to Zionism and, eventually, to the State of Israel itself. Within the Zionist movement – and within the State that followed – fierce struggles developed between the proponents of Rabbinic ideology and those who opposed them. Finally, it became clear that the proponents of Jewish secular culture had become dominant. Thus Zionism, the Yishuv (the pre-State Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael), and the Jewish State all developed within a fundamentally secular framework in which religion and religious (Orthodox) Jews had a place but did not call the tune.

E. Defining Israeli Culture. The Approach Taken in This Essay

In this way, instead of Israeli (and modern Jewish) culture’s being another expression of traditional Jewish ideology, a very different situation developed. Traditional Judaism has become one – among many – elements that have shaped the growth of Israeli culture (in both senses) over the past generations. The significance of this cannot be overstated. The national culture of Israel (both before and after the establishment of the State) has been shaped by many different influences. Some have profoundly affected the way of life (cultural definition number one) and yet have had only a limited effect on creative expression (cultural definition number two).

Most surveys of Israeli culture tend to concentrate on the second definition, only introducing aspects of the first definition wherever relevant. They therefore tend to be reduced to long lists of names of writers, musicians, films and plays, which are of limited usefulness to people making their first acquaintance with Israeli culture. It is hoped that the different approach taken in this essay will be more useful, in its attempt to examine the interaction between the two definitions of culture. A series of forces and phenomena will be examined briefly that have significantly influenced the Israeli way of life (definition number one); then ideas and examples will be offered regarding ways in which these have been expressed in the creative arts (definition number two). It is hoped that surveying Israeli culture in this manner will be both more useful and more challenging than the standard type of survey.

Such an analysis will be less than comprehensive, however. By limiting the number of central themes and influences to thirteen, many more marginal elements will be omitted. Furthermore, the elements that are surveyed will not be examined in maximum detail: that would require a book of several hundred pages. Secondly, there will be no attempt at an exhaustive survey of cultural expression; rather, central examples of the main forms and media of cultural expression will be offered. Not all the relevant aspects of artistic expression in relation to each of the subjects chosen will be mentioned; nevertheless, it is hoped that this general survey will introduce the reader to the range of forms of cultural expression in Israel. Individual cultural creators are mentioned as examples of wider phenomena, rather than sole proponents.

With these caveats in mind, it is time to begin this survey of the main influences on Israeli culture. They will be examined in roughly chronological order, according to the beginning of the main period of their influence on the Israeli the way of life. However, the expression of each subject will be brought up-to-date. This will make for a rather bumpy progression from subject to subject, but it seems to be the best and least complicated way of treating the subject.