Post-Truth Politics and Invented Traditions The Case of the Haredi Society in Israel

Key Findings:

This article explores the concept of "Post-Truth Politics" and its application in the quest of prominent Haredi rabbis to establish a society based on strict religious characteristics. It examines the rise of ultra-Orthodoxy in America, and the utilization of invented traditions as part of Post-Truth Politics to establish and reinforce Haredi society in post-Holocaust Israel.

The adherence to halakha, the Jewish religious laws, is of utmost importance to Orthodox Jews, with earlier rulings considered more authoritative than later ones due to the belief that earlier sages were closer to the original events of Torah. The concept of "the decline of the generations" (yeridat ha-dorot) reflects the belief that subsequent generations have a lesser understanding of the Torah's true values. Orthodox leaders rely on historiography to differentiate between right and wrong and maintain the traditions of the past.

The decline of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities throughout history, particularly after the Holocaust, necessitated a rebuilding of ultra-Orthodoxy in new locations. Both the Holocaust and Israel’s establishment drove many young ultra-Orthodox to completely abandon religion or to become religious-Zionists. Consequently, ultra-Orthodox Judaism was in a catastrophe, and the remaining rabbis had to find new ways to revive it.

In his introduction to the book "Invented Traditions," Eric Hobsbawm discusses how traditions often claimed to be old are actually recent in origin or even invented. These "invented traditions" are practices guided by accepted rules and rituals that aim to convey certain values and norms through repetition, especially when rapid societal transformations render old traditions obsolete or insufficiently adaptable.

In 1953, the Jewish educational systems in Mandatory Palestine were consolidated into a national system, divided into religious and secular-national wings, both funded by the government. The Haredi movement established its own partially government-supported educational system called Independent Education, with a focus on religious studies for boys and girls, neglecting general studies. The goal was to produce a generation of Torah scholars to replace those lost in the Holocaust. This entire restructuring was heralded as the resurrection of old-time glory (le-hahzir atara le-yoshna). However, in pre-Holocaust Europe, education in yeshivas was limited to a small percentage of talented students due to financial constraints and lack of government support. Contemporary Israel has seen a significant increase in the number of yeshiva students, with even larger institutions than in Europe, contradicting claims of restoring past glory. 

Haredi leaders justify their refusal to expose their children to general education by claiming that traditional education never included general studies and that Torah scholars have always opposed them. However, historical evidence contradicts this claim, showing that some Talmudic sages and revered rabbis supported and relied on general studies, particularly natural sciences. This shift towards limited general studies only emerged in the 1970s when Haredi society aimed to further separate from the rest of Israeli society.

During the late eighteenth to early 19th centuries, European rulers encouraged Jewish children to attend schools and acquire general knowledge in order to foster loyalty, acculturation, and productivity. Community leaders, aiming to demonstrate high attendance among Jews, encouraged girls to attend regular schools since there were few Jewish educational systems for them. By the mid-19th century, even girls from Orthodox families were engaged in cultural activities such as visiting museums, attending concerts, and reading novels. However, after the Holocaust, Haredi leaders in Israel rejected the tradition of educated Orthodox women and advocated for a return to uneducated, submissive roles for women, forbidding them from pursuing secular education or cultural activities.

The rabbis reintroduced the concept of women's modesty in Haredi communities, expanding its scope to encompass various aspects such as strict dress codes and the demand for married women to cover all their natural hair. This was justified by portraying women as seductive and men as easily tempted, leading to the ban on presenting women's pictures in Haredi newspapers. However, earlier sacred Hebrew books and Orthodox newspapers did feature images of women, and it was only in the early 1980s that major Haredi newspapers started segregating women's pictures from the main sections.

Among the “Post-Truth” topics not addressed: the standardization of Haredi dress code for both men and women; largely unprecedented modesty (tsniut) standards, such as separation between men and women in the streets and on public transport; the ban on “unauthorized” children’s literature alongside an array of “approved” books, periodicals, and films; integration of Sephardi Jews into Ashkenazi Haredi society; and introduction of specially adapted technology, such as supervised internet services and “kosher” mobile phones.