Michal Kravel-Tovi - When the State Winks

When the State Winks

RELIGION, CULTURE, AND PUBLIC LIFE

RELIGION, CULTURE, AND PUBLIC LIFE

Series Editor: Katherine Pratt Ewing

The resurgence of religion calls for careful analysis and constructive criticism of new forms of intolerance, as well as new approaches to tolerance, respect, mutual understanding, and accommodation. In order to promote serious scholarship and informed debate, the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life and Columbia University Press are sponsoring a book series devoted to the investigation of the role of religion in society and culture today. This series includes works by scholars in religious studies, political science, history, cultural anthropology, economics, social psychology, and other allied fields whose work sustains multidisciplinary and comparative as well as transnational analyses of historical and contemporary issues. The series focuses on issues related to questions of difference, identity, and practice within local, national, and international contexts. Special attention is paid to the ways in which religious traditions encourage conflict, violence, and intolerance and also support human rights, ecumenical values, and mutual understanding. By mediating alternative methodologies and different religious, social, and cultural traditions, books published in this series will open channels of communication that facilitate critical analysis.

After Pluralism: Reimagining Religious Engagement , edited by Courtney Bender and Pamela E. Klassen

Religion and International Relations Theory, edited by Jack Snyder

Religion in America: A Political History, Denis Lacorne

Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey, edited by Ahmet T. Kuru and Alfred Stepan

Refiguring the Spiritual: Beuys, Barney, Turrell, Goldsworthy, Mark C. Taylor

Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal, edited by Mamadou Diouf

Rewiring the Real: In Conversation with William Gaddis, Richard Powers, Mark Danielewski, and Don DeLillo, Mark C. Taylor

Democracy and Islam in Indonesia , edited by Mirjam Knkler and Alfred Stepan

Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference, edited by Linell E. Cady and Tracy Fessenden

Boundaries of Toleration, edited by Alfred Stepan and Charles Taylor

Recovering Place: Reflections on Stone Hill, Mark C. Taylor

Blood: A Critique of Christianity, Gil Anidjar

Choreographies of Shared Sacred Sites: Religion, Politics, and Conflict Resolution, edited by Elazar Barkan and Karen Barkey

Beyond Individualism: The Challenge of Inclusive Communities, George Rupp

Love and Forgiveness for a More Just World, edited by Hent de Vries and Nils F. Schott

Relativism and Religion: Why Democratic Societies Do Not Need Moral Absolutes, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti

The Making of Salafism: Islamic Reform in the Twentieth Century, Henri Lauzire

Mormonism and American Politics, edited by Randall Balmer and Jana Riess

Religion, Secularism, and Constitutional Democracy, edited by Jean L. Cohen and Ccile Laborde

Race and Secularism in America, edited by Jonathon S. Kahn and Vincent W. Lloyd

Beyond the Secular West, edited by Akeel Bilgrami

Pakistan at the Crossroads: Domestic Dynamics and External Pressures, edited by Christophe Jaffrelot

Faithful to Secularism: The Religious Politics of Democracy in Ireland, Senegal, and the Philippines, David T. Buckley

Holy Wars or Holy Alliances: The Return of Religion Onto the Global Political Stage, Manlio Graziano

WHEN THE STATE WINKS

The Performance of Jewish Conversion in Israel

MICHAL KRAVEL-TOVI

Columbia University Press New York

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2017 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-54481-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kravel-Tovi, Michal, author.

Title: When the state winks: the performance of Jewish conversion in Israel / Michal Kravel-Tovi.

Other titles: Religion, culture, and public life.

Description: New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. | Series: Religion, culture, and public life

Identifiers: LCCN 2017011282 | ISBN 9780231183246 (cloth: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: ConversionJudaism. | Jewish converts. | JewsIdentity. | Zionism.

Classification: LCC BM645.C6 K73 2017 | DDC 296.7/14095694dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011282

A Columbia University Press E-book.

CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at .

Cover design: Noah Arlow

In loving memory of my dear friend Liat Kastiel zl (19731997).

Liat planned to study anthropology. She was perceptive about people and had a talent for putting the world into words. She would have made a wonderful ethnographer.

Contents

Writing a book involves the unavoidable pleasure of accumulating debts. Both large and small, these debts give a tangible sensenames, faces, conversations, and placesto what generosity is all about. They remind us of the extent to which an endeavor as personal as writing a book depends on the efforts of so many people. My book is no different. In the classrooms at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where, back in the 1990s, I first understood that I wanted to become an anthropologist; in the offices of my mentors, where I was always given the space to articulate my ideas (as tentative and fragile as they were); and, finally, in my kitchen, where I sit now writing these acknowledgments, and where I wrote much of this book, with my partner and boys around, I have grown fortunate enough to owe so much to so many people.

I began my undergraduate studies with the intention of becoming a psychologist. However, due mainly to an inspiring encounter with Tamar El-Or and Yoram Bilu, who would later become my mentors, I changed my plans. Each in their own way, Tamar and Yoram sparked my interest in the ethnography of Jewish life. They soon became role models and have remained a source of wisdom. Tamar taught me why ethnography matters and how it allows scholars to write creatively. Yoram provided intellectual guidance, expressed confidence in my work, and allowed me to carve out my own path. For me, he exemplifies how modesty can go hand in hand with fame and shrewd scholarship. The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Mandel Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem provided financial support for this project. As a fellow at the center, and a member of the research group on religion and education, I benefited from a vibrant and stimulating academic setting during the critical early stages of this project.

I was fortunate to join the University of Michigans Frankel Center for Judaic Studies as a postdoctoral fellow during Deborah Dash Moores tenure as the centers director. I hope she knows how much I value her generosity to junior scholars, her high standards for scholarship, and the political and disciplinary open-mindedness of her approach to Jewish studies. At the Frankel Center I also met my dearest (and undoubtedly funniest) colleague and friend, Vanessa Ochs. Vanessa was the first among several supportive colleagues to demand that I rework my dissertation into a book manuscript. It is hardly original to describe Jennifer Robertson as a generous colleague and adviser. Many have written this about her, and they are right. I thank her for pushing me to write this book. At Michigan I was also fortunate to meet Josh Friedman, then a PhD candidate in anthropology and now a wonderful young anthropologist. As a talented editor, colleague, and friend, Josh has helped me sharpen my skills as an Israeli author writing ethnography for non-Israeli audiences. The traces of our ongoing dialogue exist throughout the pages that follow, and I look forward to reading his own book.