The clashing perspectives over Jewishness in Israel, on the one side an orthodox minority that is a major political player, on the other a secular majority that is politically fragmented, is a cause of constant tension in Israeli Jewish society. In Israel, Jewishness with its religious overtones overlaps with national sentiments. This overlap is one aspect of the Israeli secular story, orthodox monopoly over the state’s Jewish character is another. The Jewish renewal movement in Israel looks to bridge, and reestablish a reciprocal relationship, between the national and religious aspects of Israeliness with Hebrew culture based on the Hebrew Bible as the common core. The movement calls upon secular Jewish individuals to challenge the Jewish orthodoxy monopoly in Israel. Furthermore, it calls for secular individuals to reclaim ownership and with it authority over Jewish culture, recreating Jewishness in their own secular image. What exactly is that secular image that is to mold Jewishness into a contemporary frame of reference, is in fact the subject of this dissertation. In this work, I carry out an analysis of group identification based on secular principles. I argue that group identification based in secularity facilitates inclusive environment; however, it does not guarantee inclusion. Looking at BINA and its secular yeshiva in the south of Tel-Aviv, I introduce ethnographic data showing how secular sensibilities challenge current understanding of group belonging and boundaries. The binary notion secular-religious forms the basis for understanding the secular by both layman and experts. In Israel’s socio-political atmosphere orthodoxy has become equated with religiosity, leading many to believe that secularity and Jewishness are mutually exclusive. However this study shows that the ethnographic findings about BINA and its secular yeshiva prove otherwise. The coupling of the term secular and yeshiva is a socio-political claim against Jewish orthodox monopoly in Israel. BINA proudly claims its in-between status, representing both the secular and Jewishness, not as oppositions but simply as different cultural frameworks coming together to form BINA, and in turn these frameworks are being reimagined through BINA, embodying the processual nature of culture. Two themes guide my investigation of BINA: the ways the secular informs its operations as a Jewish educational institution, and the relationship between the collective and the individual in the secular institute. Concentrating on five secular modes of operation – literacy, multiplicity, contextual truth, activism and sovereignty, I show how Jewish inclusiveness is facilitated. I use two tracks to make my arguments regarding secular groupness: BINA’s teachings and BINA’s operations as an institution. Analyzing BINA’s teaching I demonstrate how secular sensibilities are transmitted to students. Furthermore, I show how these secular sensibilities encourage a more inclusive perception of Jewish groupness. BINA’s institutional dynamics offer a window on the way secular sensibilities guide the interplay between the individual and the collective.I argue for a new model for group identification that is more flexible and thus more inclusive. I introduce and explore the notion of inclusive groupness as a voluntary collective individualism, which achieves group cohesion through its very dynamism, flexibility and ability to foster change. The model of inclusive groupness is based on two principles: fidelity, and debate and negotiation.
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