Irreligion in Israel

Hiloni, usually translated as “secular,” was the largest Jewish self-identification category in a nationwide 2014–2015 survey: 49% of Jewish respondents used it, alongside 29% Masorti, or traditional, 13% Dati, or religious, and 9% Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox.[1] Hilonim represented 40% of all Israeli adults in that survey, a different denominator from their share of Jewish respondents.[1] These categories describe positions along a spectrum of identity and observance rather than a simple separation between people with religion and people without it.[1]

Secular identification does not establish whether someone believes in God, observes particular commandments, or considers Jewishness a religious affiliation.[1] Almost all Jewish respondents identified their present religion as Jewish, although approximately one in five did not believe in God.[1] Among the 3,789 Jewish respondents, 64 said they had no religion but considered themselves Jewish apart from religion and had a Jewish upbringing; they were included in the Jewish sample.[1] Across the full sample, a separate group of 34 respondents belonged to other religions or were religiously unaffiliated.[1]

The traditional category also illustrates the limits of a religious–secular binary.[1] Among Masortim, 21% prayed daily, 31% never prayed, and 32% prayed monthly or seldom.[1] Asked about travel on the Sabbath, 53% said they traveled by car, bus, or train, while 41% said they did not.[1] Traditional identity therefore covered a broad middle ground whose members differed substantially in their observance.[1]

Secular Zionism sought to create a secular Hebrew national culture, but the connection between Jewish nationality and religion complicated that project.[4] The debate over the Declaration of Independence’s reference to the “Rock of Israel” exemplified compromise over religious language at the establishment of the state.[4] A statehood-era accommodation between Labor and the Orthodox National Religious Party left Israel without becoming a religious state while preserving substantial religious authority over matters including marriage and conversion.[4]

Religious–secular “status quo” arrangements grew out of understandings reached during early Zionism and accepted by Israel’s political leadership after independence.[5] They included kashrut in public institutions, Sabbath observance, military-service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men and women, and religious-establishment authority over marriage, conversion, and burial.[5] Rather than establishing a separation of religion and state, these arrangements deferred divisive issues and left some questions to local authorities, courts, or political avoidance.[5]

Demands for civil marriage and burial, recognition of Reform and Conservative Judaism, immigration from the former Soviet Union, and the expansion of Sabbath commerce subsequently placed pressure on these arrangements.[5] The religious–secular divide also overlapped with territorial disputes after 1967.[5] Over recent decades, the public meaning of secularism shifted toward political efforts to reduce religious influence in public life, rather than primarily constructing a new secular Hebrew culture.[4] Israeli civic culture nevertheless remained closely connected to Jewish tradition and roots, despite secular Zionism’s earlier labor and socialist origins.[4]

Historical surveys recorded several distinct forms of nonreligious identification.[6][7] A 1999 survey found that 43% of Israeli Jews described themselves as nonreligious and another 5% as anti-religious.[6] In 2002–2004, a different survey recorded 44% as secular, 39% as traditional, 9% as religious, and 8% as Haredi.[7] Its separate religiousness scale produced different results: 11% called themselves very religious, 42% religious, 21% not very religious, and 18% not religious at all.[7] These were different questions, not interchangeable classifications.[7]

In 2020, 44.8% of Jewish adults aged 20 and older described themselves as “not religious, secular,” compared with 20.5% “traditional not-so-religious,” 12.5% “traditional-religious,” 11.7% “religious,” and 10.0% ultra-Orthodox.[8] Related social-survey tables place the secular share at roughly 44% in the periods they cover.[9] These classifications rest on respondents’ self-reports; they do not directly establish belief in God or participation in specific religious practices.[10]

Earlier and later surveys used differing categories and populations.[1][11] The 2009 Social Survey recorded 42% of Jews as secular, 25% traditional, 13% traditional-religious, 12% religious, and 8% Haredi.[11] A late-2016 lifestyle survey reported 45% secular, 25% traditional, 16% very religious, and 14% Haredi, making secular respondents the largest category but not an absolute majority.[12] Detailed multiyear divisions by religious population group were not consistently available, with figures supplied when relevant surveys existed.[12]

A May 2018 telephone survey of 1,000 Israeli Jews over 18 found that 37% defined themselves religiously as secular, with a stated margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.[13] In a 2023 religion-and-state poll of 800 adult Jewish respondents, 46% identified as secular and 18% as traditional-not-religious in relation to public-policy questions.[14] That poll also found that 72% did not observe Shabbat according to religious law.[14] Differences in dates, wording, categories, and sampling mean that these percentages should not be read as a single continuous measure of secularization.[1][14]

Comparisons of earlier social-survey data found that the Orthodox share of Jews aged 20 and older rose from 16% in 2002 to 19% in 2013, while the non-Orthodox share declined from 84% to 80%.[1] The Haredi share reached 9% in 2013, compared with 6% a little more than a decade earlier.[1] Secular identification remained roughly steady, while the traditional category experienced the largest net loss.[1]

Other comparisons suggested a possible contraction of the religious middle.[1] Approximately 34% reported following some Jewish tradition in the newer survey, compared with at least 40% in surveys conducted between 1991 and 2009.[1] The share calling religion somewhat important fell from 36% in 2007 to 26%, while the share calling it very important rose from 24% to 30%; those describing it as not too or not at all important increased from 38% to 44%.[1] Such comparisons have limits because question wording differed across studies.[1]

Among Hilonim in 2015, 40% said they did not believe in God, 38% believed but were less than absolutely certain, and 18% believed with absolute certainty.[2] Across Jewish Israelis as a whole, half reported absolutely certain belief.[2] Only 2% of Hilonim said religion was very important in their lives, while 79% called it not too or not at all important.[2] Secular identity thus included both unbelievers and people whose belief did not translate into strong religious commitment.[2]

Prayer and synagogue attendance were uncommon among many secular respondents: 79% never prayed, and 60% never attended synagogue.[2] Only 1% prayed daily and 1% attended services weekly.[2] Yet 87% had hosted or attended a Passover Seder, 53% at least sometimes lit Sabbath candles, and about one-third kept kosher at home.[1][3] Meanwhile, 95% traveled by car, bus, or train on Shabbat and 88% handled money on the Sabbath.[3] These practices could express cultural and family connections as well as religious commitments.[3]

Passover participation extended well beyond the religiously observant.[15] More than 90% of Jews in Israel attended a Seder, including over 80% of self-described secular Jews and more than half of Soviet or Russian immigrants, a particularly secular population group.[15] A Seder could function as a family celebration incorporating ritual without being connected to religious faith or observance.[15] About 70% of Israeli Jews fasted on Yom Kippur, while one account of the 2015 survey reported full-day fasting among 30% of secular respondents.[16][17] A separate cross-country finding placed fasting among secular or communally uninvolved Jews in Israel, the United States, and Britain at roughly 25–33%; that range was not an Israel-only estimate.[16]

Broader figures similarly show that self-identification and ritual participation measure different things.[18] Some 51% of Israeli Jews described themselves as observant of Jewish ritual to some extent, 25% attended synagogue weekly, and another 39% attended at least infrequently.[18] About one-third of secular Jews kept kosher at home, although the dates and methodology accompanying these particular figures were unspecified.[18] Secular Jewish life could also combine Sabbath travel or shopping with fasting, avoidance of non-kosher food, or occasional synagogue attendance.[5]

A secular-oriented school system teaches in Hebrew and includes Jewish studies, including the Bible, in a cultural rather than religious framework.[19] This provides one setting in which Jewish texts and heritage remain part of education without requiring a religious approach to them.[19]

An exploratory November 2001 study at Ruppin College examined “secular believers” among 278 undergraduates, most aged 21–26.[20] Although 91% called themselves secular, only 10% of that group described themselves as anti-religious secular.[20] The researchers identified interest in a liberal, open-ended relationship with tradition, while emphasizing that their proposed category required further research.[20] The small student sample was not a representative survey of Israeli society.[20]

The study also distinguished private dietary choices from preferences for shared institutions.[20] Some 67% said food at home need not be kosher, and 73.5% did not make a point of eating kosher outside the home.[20] Nevertheless, 70.5% favored kosher university cafeterias, and approximately 85% wanted food in the Israel Defense Forces to be kosher.[20] The researchers interpreted this combination as personal choice in private life alongside consideration for religious and traditional Jews in public settings.[20]

Secular wedding ceremonies offered another means of developing Jewish cultural forms outside conventional religious observance.[21] A 2005 report estimated that around 300 couples had held such ceremonies during the preceding year.[21] At that time, the ceremonies were not legally recognized as marriages, and couples seeking legal recognition needed a religious ceremony or a civil union abroad.[21] Organizers described participants as seeking connections with Jewish traditions, including some who believed in God but did not want rabbis to mediate that relationship.[21]

For 83% of Hilonim in 2015, Jewish identity was mainly a matter of ancestry or culture, compared with 4% who understood it chiefly as religion.[1] Asked to prioritize national identities, 59% described themselves as Israeli first and Jewish second; by contrast, 59% of Masortim identified as Jewish first.[1] Some members of all four Jewish identity groups connected Jewishness with both religion and ancestry or culture.[1] Secular Jewishness therefore represented a form of Jewish belonging rather than necessarily a rejection of it.[1]

Secular identity also shaped close social networks.[1] About nine in ten Hilonim said all or most of their close friends were Hiloni, and 93% of those with a spouse or partner said that person was Hiloni.[1] Asked hypothetically about a child marrying a Haredi Jew, 73% were not at all comfortable and 20% not too comfortable.[1] Conversely, 95% of Haredi respondents said they would be uncomfortable with a child marrying a secular Jew.[1]

A 2024 survey found that movement between Jewish identity groups was more common than departure from Jewish religious identification.[22] Fewer than 1% of Israelis raised Jewish said they now belonged to another religion or had no religion, while about 1% of current Jewish Israelis had been raised in another religion or without religion.[22] By comparison, 22% had changed from their childhood Jewish identity group.[22]

Hilonim had the highest measurable retention rate: 93% of those raised secular remained secular.[22] About six in ten people raised Dati or Masorti retained those identities; the sample was too small to calculate a separate Haredi retention rate.[22] Overall, 15% reported moving toward a less observant group and 6% toward a more observant one.[22] Nine percent had become Hiloni after being raised in another group, including 7% of all Jewish Israelis who moved from Masorti to Hiloni, while 3% had been raised Hiloni and left that category.[22] The analysis used face-to-face interviews with 591 Jewish adults conducted from March 3 to April 4, 2024.[22]

Israel has no official religion and is described in government background material as a Jewish and democratic state.[23] Major religious communities exercise jurisdiction over internal religious affairs and personal-status matters, including marriage, divorce, and burial.[23] Freedom of conscience, faith, religion, and worship, including the freedom to practice or not practice religious beliefs, is protected through the Declaration of Independence as referenced by Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.[14] There is no legal requirement for personal observance or nonobservance of Shabbat or Jewish holidays.[14]

The administrative designation “lacking religion” is different from secular identity or atheism.[14] Approximately 450,000 citizens who identified as Jewish but did not meet the Chief Rabbinate’s Jewish-status criteria, together with members of unrecognized religious groups, were recorded under that designation in the 2023 religious-freedom account.[14] The vast majority were immigrants from the former Soviet Union and their descendants who obtained citizenship under the Law of Return but could not establish Jewish matrilineal descent to the Chief Rabbinate’s satisfaction.[14]

In 2023, approximately 73.2% of the population was classified as Jewish, while a separate 5% “other” category included people who identified as Jewish but did not meet the Orthodox definition used for government civil procedures.[14] Separately, a poll found that 57% of Jewish citizens did not affiliate with any stream of Judaism.[14] Administrative status, affiliation with a Jewish stream, secular self-description, and religious belief are therefore distinct measures.[14]

Religious authority over marriage, divorce, and public policy has been a central point of disagreement between secular and Orthodox communities.[1] In the 2015 survey, 89% of Hilonim favored democratic principles over halakha when the two conflicted, while 89% of Haredim favored halakha.[1] Among Hilonim, 90% opposed making halakha the official law for Jews in Israel, and 94% opposed shutting down all public transportation nationwide on Shabbat.[1] Hilonim generally opposed Orthodox control over marriage and divorce, and a majority supported allowing Reform and Conservative rabbis to conduct weddings; the survey described a system without civil marriage in Israel and with domestic Jewish marriages requiring Orthodox sanction.[1]

An advocacy-commissioned 2017 survey of 800 Jewish adults, with a maximum sampling error of 3.5%, found support for separating religion and state at 68%, compared with 56% in 2012.[24] In a 2024 nationwide survey of 1,001 adults, 56% perceived conflicts between religious and nonreligious sections of society, including 18% who considered them very strong.[25] Optimism about peaceful religious–secular coexistence stood at 45% among Hilonim, compared with 75% among Masortim and 79% among Haredim and Datiim.[25]

Definitions of irreligion also affect estimates.[26] A Mosaic commentary estimated that only 5–10% of Israeli Jews met a strict definition combining unbelief with absence of synagogue attendance and religious practice; this was an interpretive estimate, not an official count.[26] The commentary also cited widespread circumcision, mezuzah placement, Seder attendance, and candle lighting as evidence against equating secular identity with ritual absence.[26] A Maariv commentary similarly emphasized question wording, contrasting roughly four-in-five belief under binary questions with 50–58% absolutely certain belief under qualified questions, and reporting atheism among 29% of completely secular respondents versus 5% of somewhat traditional-secular respondents.[27]

Other surveys underscore these measurement differences: an end-of-2014 international poll recorded 57% in Israel as not religious and 8% as convinced atheists, whereas the 2002–2004 social-survey account reported atheist self-description among only 1.5% of secular Jews.[28][7] In a discussion of a 2012 survey reporting 80% belief in God, Professor Avi Sagi argued that shared Jewish culture need not depend on belief and that ritual practice need not imply faith.[29]