Singelhood and Religion: The case of Israeli Religious Zionist singles.

In current Religious Zionist society, marriage and family are considered sacred values that stand in opposition to the sexual liberalism that believers associate with secular society. Religious Zionists are encouraged to marry in their early 20s; those who fail to follow this societal script find themselves facing social and religious challenges. This article, based upon ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with RZ singles, examines the contexts of this phenomenon as well as the actual effect of prolonged singlehood upon the religiosity of singles. Singles' distance from traditional synagogue-based communities and their tendency to form closed networks of friends with other Religious Zionists (RZs), both of which are typical during young adulthood, were found to impact their religiosity. It was also found that many singles consider their religiosity to be flawed. This is explained as resulting from both the drawing force of Western youth culture and from feelings of loneliness and anomy experienced by singles. Their central strategy for dealing with the arising tension is compartmentalization—viewing singlehood as a period during which a moratorium from strict religious observance is acceptable. INTRODUCTION In the midst of the evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, an evacuation that was bitterly opposed by the majority of Israeli Religious Zionist (RZ) Jews and experienced by many of the evacuees as a highly traumatic event, a special prayer gathering was held at the Western Wall. The prayer, led by the chief rabbi of the very same Gaza Strip, was convened in order to pray for the swift marriage of the community's singles. The unusual timing and the central location of this event demonstrate the extent to which many RZ's are concerned regarding prolonged singlehood. Among Orthodox Jews (RZs and others), prolonged singlehood is often referred to as a " problem. " This is partially due to the importance of marriage and family in Jewish tradition. However, it seems that present concerns regarding singlehood are compounded by religious Zionism's focus on the nuclear family as a locus for religious practice, and by its fear of " young adulthood, " a new stage of the lifecycle that has developed in Western societies and is viewed by RZs as encouraging libertine conduct. In order to avoid what they view as the pitfalls of remaining single—excess freedom, " wasting time, " and romantic and sexual experimentation—RZ religious authorities encourage marriage at a young age (Engelberg 2013). This article focuses on the religiosity of singles who fail to fulfill the societal expectation to marry young, remaining single into their late 20s and beyond. These singles find themselves torn between Western youth-culture scripts regarding this stage of the lifecycle and RZ family Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Dana Kaplan, Rachel Werczberger, Adam Klin-Oron, Michal Kravel, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

2015

This article reviews the state of the research on religious singles, claiming that it is an understudied field. In late modernity, the age of marriage has risen. The importance of family for religious observance and the " family values " ideology adopted by conservative religions pose obstacles for singles who wish to remain observant, and can lead to their marginalization. I review the literature on singles and identify common patterns informed by my own research on religious Zionist singles. I argue that discourse and values regarding marriage and singlehood across various conservative religious communities have much in common, and that religious singles often find themselves torn between their religious values and those of secular mainstream young adult society.

“Marriage was not an option”: ethnoreligious mixed marriage in Israel, 2021

This study explores the way Jewish women negotiate their crossing ethnoreligious borders in a deeply divided society through 15 in-depth interviews. Despite social, economic and political exclusion of Palestinians in Israel, in certain circumstances, the ethnic and religious borders are weakening. The core findings have led to three conclusions. First, ethnic mixed marriage occurs between Palestinian men and Jewish women from diverse groups with heterogeneity in their socioeconomic features, which places in doubt previous discourse that this kind of marriage appears among people from marginalized groups in Israel. Second, the ethnic hierarchical relationship between the two groups carries over into their intimate relationships. Third, the rigid borders of ethnoreligious belonging to the Israeli society and the extent of belonging to the Jewish mainstream differ among Jewish immigrants from different origins, produce different types of negotiations among the Jewish women while they are crossing the ethnoreligious borders by marrying Palestinian men.

The Business of Fashion, 2024

A simple innovation still in use today likely allowed prehistoric humans to turn clothing into the complex social signals they are now, according to researchers. Interview with Marc Bain.

project paper on Sime Darby Berhard as a case study for education propose.