Aguddat Israel
Unlike the situation in Central or Western Europe,
where challenges to Jewish beliefs and institutions usually led to
religious and theological reform, in Eastern Europe (as well as among
the Sephardim, for the most part), Jews tended to chose between
traditional religion and a broad spectrum of secular expressions of Judaism.
The result was that the influence of non-Orthodox Jewish religious
movements was marginal.
In the early 20th century, Aguddat Israel ("the Israelite union") was established as the political
arm of traditional Orthodoxy,
representing a wide range of anti-modern branches who were not ready
to accept the cultural openness of Hirsch's Neo-Orthodoxy.
The Aguddat Israel had its beginnings at a
conference that took place in 1912 at Kattowitz. The Tenth
World Zionist Congress had recently defeated a resolution
proposed by the Mizrachi religious Zionist faction requesting equal support for religious
schools. As a result several prominent Mizrachi supporters had
withdrawn from the Zionist movement and allied themselves with the forces that would constitute the Aguddat
Israel. During the First World War the centre of the movement
shifted from Russia to Frankfort, Germany.
Active in the Aguddah were several Hasidic groups, alongside advocates of Lithuanian-style yeshivahs,
and even a Labor wing that called for the establishment of strictly
religious agricultural settlements in Palestine, outside the
framework of the Zionist movement.
The Aguddat Israel wielded considerable
political power, sending representatives to the Polish parliament.
While they were largely hostile to Zionism as a
movement, arguing that the Jews constituted a religious community
defined by Torah and
not a normal nation, the establishment
of the State of Israel in 1948 makes that antagonism largely
irrelevant. In Israel they have represented the interests of the
"ultra-Orthodox" constituency in the national parliament,
the Knesset. Owing to the
nature of Israel's proportional representation system, the relatively
small numbers of Aguddat Israel representatives has often been
crucial to the survival of government coalitions, and hence they have
very effective in channeling resources towards their yeshivahs
and other institutions. They have advocated religious legislation;
e.g., public observance of Sabbath and dietary laws, the rejection
of non-Orthodox conversions in the definition of "Jew" in
Israel's "Law of Return".
Policy decisions of Aguddat Israel must be
ratified by their "Council of Torah Scholars," which
consists of leading rabbis from the main constituent groups. When
participating in government coalitions, they have generally refrained
from accepting actual cabinet posts.
Aguddat Israel does not have clear
positions on issues related to security or foreign policy. Since they
do not attach eschatological or religious significance to the State
of Israel, they generally approach such questions pragmatically.
The Aguddat Israel established a broad
assortment of religious institutions in Europe, including the "Beis
Yakov" girl's schools and programmes for "adult
education." Most of these institutions have been transplanted to
Israel and America. In Israel they have maintained their separate
school system (Hinnukh 'Atzma'i) outside the state-run
Religious School System.
Sources: Prof.
Eliezer Siegel's Home Page |