Religious Encounters in Israeli State Education

Katz (in press) described Israel as a unique country in that its population has
increased tenfold since independence in 1948 and is composed of Jews and Arabs,
veterans and immigrants hailing from over 100 countries throughout the world. As
such Israel has the trappings of both a traditional and modern society at one and the
same time, in addition to having an extremely heterogeneous population (following
Eisenstadt 1996). The majority Jewish population consists of secular Jews who profess to be Jewish but mainly do not observe religious precepts and commandments;
modern orthodox Jews who observe Jewish precepts and commandments but believe
that in daily life they share common social goals with members of other sectors in
Israeli society and should strive for full integration into general society in their daily
routines; and ultra-orthodox Jews who stringently observe religious precepts and commandments and feel that integration into general society will negatively affect their
religious life style and thus do the best they can to shy away from integration into society. The minority Arab population consists mainly of Moslems who may be defined
as traditionally religious but are generally moderate in their level of religious observance despite the growing trend toward increased levels of religious observance in the
Moslem sector; there is a smaller but vibrant Christian community with a majority of
members who describe themselves as being believers and moderately religious and
willingly accept their religion as an essential part of their identity as well as their culture; and there is a sizeable Druze community that also maintains traditionally close
affinity with the Druze religion but because their religion is shrouded in secrecy with
only the clergy actually having full knowledge about the intricacies of the religion,
the issue of religious identity and culture is emphasized much more than religious
observance.