Prof. Menachem Mautner: "Religious Zionism assumes a disproportional amount of responsibility for Israeli society."

Prof. Menachem Mautner

Professor Menachem Mautner, Professor of Law at the Tel Aviv University and one of the leading experts in law, culture and multiculturalism in Israel, recently lectured at an academic conference sponsored by Shaharit: Creating Common Cause, a think tank with the goal of presenting fresh thinking on Israeli society. Prof. Mautner has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School, NYU Law School, Cardiff Law School; Harvard Law School; and Columbia University Law School.

This is what Prof. Mautner had to say about the religious Zionist population in Israel today:

“I the past few decades the religious Zionist population has undergone a metamorphosis. In the past, religious Zionism saw itself as the junior partner in the hegemony held by the mainstream secular Zionism in Israeli society. However, at some point the religious Zionist camp began to see itself in a totally different way. In recent years it has begun to prepare itself to take the lead of the cultural, political and social hegemony in the decades to come. This is a historic sea-change in the way religious Zionism sees its role in society.”

“Religious Zionists constitute a very important group, and we must take them into consideration and cooperate with them in defining the liberal values in Israeli society.”

“It is a quite a large group, and more importantly, it is a very strong group institution-wise. It has many Yeshivot and other institutions, and it is impossible to ignore its power. It is a very responsible group, which involves itself with the affairs of the state on all levels, as opposed to the Haredi population. In other words, it is a group that assumes a disproportional amount of responsibility for Israeli society. One just has to look at the number of combat officers in the IDF today to see this – the majority are from the religious Zionist camp.”

Thank you, Prof. Mautner for confirming that we are succeeding in our mission: 

Yeshivot Bnei Akiva - Training Israel's Future. TM