From Yeshiva Students to Breadwinners: Liminality and Concealment Among Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men in Israel

This article examines shifting masculinities among young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in Israel who have left yeshiva (religious seminary) to pursue higher education with the ultimate goal of employment. Based on semi-structured interviews with 30 ultra-Orthodox men, we identify academic studies as a transitional stage during which they “trade” the masculinity of religious student for that of (future) breadwinner. We show how the binary structuring of religious studies in opposition to breadwinning constitutes a barrier to recognition of the men’s academic identity by the ultra-Orthodox community, and instead dictates a temporary liminal strategy of concealment to avoid social sanctions. Diverging from common formulations of hegemonic masculinity as based on either complicity/resistance to selective incorporation of hybrid masculinity, the liminal strategy points to a third alternative of “neither here nor there”, in which selective incorporation marginalizes a group of men as they transition between two competing hegemonic models.