“In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) recently used this passage from the Book of Judges in the opening to a commentary on tribalism in modern Israeli society.
“We seem to be reverting back to the period of the Biblical judges, with each tribe fighting against the other, in an atmosphere of complete chaos,” wrote Dr. Shuki Friedman. “If Israeli society cannot rise above the tribal identities of its diverse population groups and find a common ground on which the State of Israel can stand firm, it will simply fall apart.”
Nearly 75 years have passed since Israel was reborn an independent nation, and tribalism is very much alive. You could go so far as to say it’s defining us. The various different “tribes” that immigrated to Israel from the four corners of the earth are still well defined in modern society. A tribe of Eastern Jews (Mizrachim), a tribe of European Jews (Ashkenazim), a tribe of secular Jews, a...
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