The Divided People

Eva Etzioni-Halevy gives a penetrating account of how the no-holds-barred power competition between religious and secular leaders is endangering Israel's democracy. A sweeping but deeply troubling analysis of Israel today and of the funeral pyre its political elites seem intent on building. -- John Higley, University of Texas at Austin
Even after concluding that Israeli Jews are increasingly divided on religious grounds, Eva Etzioni-Halevy redirects our attention to the erosion of the common ground that used to (ought to/can still) unite them as a nation and as a democracy. -- Elihu Katz, University of Pennsylvania and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Divided People [is] a fascinating dtudy of the variety of differences in worldview and experiences between secular and religious Jews in Israel. * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
While all commentators on Israeli reality focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Eva Etzioni-Halevy points out the crucial significance of the ongoing religious-secular confrontation-which, to no lesser extent, questions the viability of this society. In this masterpiece of sociopolitical analysis, Etzioni-Halevy shows how the essential character of this only sovereign Jewish society is at stake in a battle where divergent camps oppose each other with obstination, willfully ignoring each other's legacy as well as the cultural foundation that holds them together. -- Eliezer Ben-Rafael, President, International Institute of Sociology, Tel-Aviv University