Religious Freedom

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (1948) guarantees freedom of religion for all. Each religious community is free, by law and in practice, to exercise its faith, to observe its holidays and weekly day of rest and to administer its internal affairs. Each has its own religious council and courts, recognized by law and with jurisdiction over all religious affairs and matters of personal status such as marriage and divorce. Each has its own unique places of worship, with traditional rituals and special architectural features developed over the centuries.

Today the country's population is comprised of 77.2 percent Jews, 15.5 percent Muslims, 2.1 percent Christians (mostly Arabs), 1.6 percent Druze and 3.6 percent not classified by religion.

Within this pluralistic framework, the various communities maintain their own religious, educational, cultural and charitable institutions. The courts of each religious community have full jurisdiction in matters of the personal status of its members.

Each of the country's many holy sites is administered by its own religious authority, while protection against desecration and trespassing as well as free access are guaranteed by law.

Israel's official day of rest is Saturday, the Shabbat. Muslims observe their day of rest on Friday, while Christians observe theirs on Sunday.

Since the establishment of the state (1948), the Jewish population has grown from 650,000 to over five million, doubling in the first four years alone with the mass immigration of European Holocaust survivors and refugees from Arab countries.

From that time, Jews have continued to come, in varying numbers, both from countries of oppression and from the free world. In two major efforts (1984, 1991) virtually the entire Jewish community of Ethiopia, believed to have been there since the time of King Solomon, was gathered to Israel. Another large wave of immigration, which began in 1989, is comprised of over one million Jews from the former Soviet Union.

In the course of the “ingathering of the exiles” Jews brought with them the traditions of their own communities as well as aspects of the culture indigenous to the countries where they had lived for generations. Thus Israel's Jewish population, while united by a common faith and history, is characterized by a diversity of outlooks and lifestyles, resulting in a society which is partly Western, partly Eastern European, partly Middle Eastern, but mainly Israeli.

Israel's non-Jewish, primarily Arab communities, comprising almost 23 percent of the population, have increased from 156,000 people in 1949 to some 1.5 million today. Their participation in the country's democratic processes attests to their civic affiliation, though development of relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews has been hindered by differences in language, religion and lifestyles as well as by the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict.

The two populations live side by side, with contacts on economic, municipal and political levels, but with little social interaction.

Israel is home to a widely diverse population from many ethnic, religious, cultural and social backgrounds. A new society with ancient roots, it is still coalescing and evolving today. Of its 6.6 million people, 77 percent are Jews, 19 percent are Arabs (mostly Muslim) and the remaining 4 percent comprise Druze, Circassians and others not classified by religion. The society is relatively young and characterized by social and religious commitment, political ideology, economic resourcefulness and cultural creativity, all of which contributes momentum to its continuing development.

Women in Israel

Women's lobbies are today more prominent than ever, contributing to the advancement of the status of women in Israel, through appeals to the High Court of Justice and the blocking of discriminatory legislation.

Religious Diversity

Jewish society in Israel today is made up of observant and non-observant Jews, comprising a spectrum from the ultra-Orthodox to those who regard themselves as secular. However, the differences between them are not clear-cut. If Orthodoxy is determined by the degree of adherence to Jewish religious laws and practices, then 20 percent of Israeli Jews fulfill all religious precepts, 60 percent follow some combination of the laws according to personal choices and ethnic traditions, and 20 percent are essentially non-observant. But as Israel was conceived as a Jewish state, the Sabbath (Saturday) and all Jewish festivals and holy days have been instituted as national holidays and are celebrated by the entire Jewish population and observed by all, to a greater or lesser extent.

Basically, the majority may be characterized as secular Jews who manifest modern lifestyles, with varied degrees of respect for and practice of religious precepts. Within this majority are many who follow a modified traditional way of life, with some choosing to affiliate with one of the liberal religious streams.
Within the observant minority, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, are many who adhere to a religious way of life, regulated by Jewish religious law, while participating in the country's national life. They regard the modern Jewish state as the first step towards the coming of the Messiah and redemption of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

In contrast, the ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Land can be reestablished only after the coming of the Messiah. Maintaining strict adherence to Jewish religious law, they reside in separate neighborhoods, run their own schools, dress in traditional clothing, maintain distinct roles for men and women and are bound by a closely circumscribed lifestyle.