The Threat of Jewish Revivalism TEL AVIV - A new study (pdf) by the Guttman Center for surveys at the Israel Democracy Institute shows that Israel is becoming more actively Jewish. Jews, who make up about 80 percent of the country's population, believe in God more today than they used to: in 2009, 80 percent said they did, compared with 74 percent in 1999. More of them observe Shabbat. And an "overwhelming majority" - one greater than before - believe it is important to conduct the main Jewish life-cycle rituals, such as circumcising newborns, sitting shiva to mourn the deceased and holding a bar mitzvah to celebrate a boy's passage into manhood. Some people fear this could undermine democracy in Israel. "The more Orthodox a Jewish Israeli is," Tamar Hermann, a political scientist and the academic director of the Guttman Center, pointed out to me last week, "the less he or she is concerned with democratic values." The funny irony here is that as Hermann is raising alarm over such matters, she's adhering to the most common of Jewish traditions: worrying about the future. Sure, change is worrisome and Israel is changing, but not all change is bad. In fact, I, and others, find reasons for optimism in her study. Hermann told me that Israelis" growing religiosity can be attributed to three trends. Orthodox groups have higher birth rates than others. "Traditional" Jews - Jewish Israelis who observe many Jewish traditions without adhering fully to Orthodox teachings (they might eat kosher but watch television on Shabbat) - are shifting to the "religious" camp. And the million-strong immigrants who moved to Israel from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s have "Israelized." The newcomers were very secular at first but with time have become more like other Israelis. Hermann is hardly alone in being concerned by these trends. "Harsh" statistics, one commentator said of Israelis" increasing belief in God; "a worrisome finding," said another. Yet another warned that Israel was becoming a "theocracy." According to Hermann's study, just 44 percent of respondents said that when Halakhah (Jewish law) contradicts democratic principles, "democracy should always take precedence." Twenty percent said they would always adhere to Halakhah and 36 percent that they would decide on a case-by-case basis. There certainly are conflicts between these values. Some rabbis, including important rabbi teachers, want soldiers to disregard military orders and refuse to attend any ceremony in which a female soldier is singing (it'd be a breach of modesty). And there are Israelis who believe that no rabbi should be sued for inciting discrimination against Arabs, no matter what he advocates, on the theory that religious teachings should be immune from state supervision. But the people who tend to see tensions between Jewish and democratic values as inescapable typically are either those most pleased with Israel's growing religiosity or those most concerned about it. Illiberal rabbis believe that the truly religious cannot always adhere to democratic values, and secularists believe that the religious can't be trusted to protect them. In fact, Judaism can be inclusive, democratic and liberal as much as it can be prohibitive, illiberal and undemocratic. "In Judaism, as in other religions, both options exist in full force," notes Yair Sheleg, a fellow at the Democracy Institute (he works where the Guttman study originated but was not part of its research team). The Guttman survey would seem to point to the worrisome option. But reading it that way may be premature. Realities change, and so do attitudes. And the study doesn't account for important components of religious Israelis" psyche: their need to be accepted and their lingering sense that they've been marginalized by a secular establishment that has supposedly been running Israel for many years. According to the Guttman survey's own findings, religious Israelis may now have reason to overcome this alienation. This should be grounds for comfort for everyone. "The only thing that will change in the wake of the poll is the sense of ownership possessed by the anti-religious camp," argues Hagai Segal, one of Israel's sharpest right-wing religious commentators. What he means is that the growing dominance of the religious could change their attitude for the better. In an article in Israel Studies Review last week, the sociologist Shlomo Fischer seems to agree: as "the extent and the density of [religious Israelis"] involvement with broader Israeli society" increases, so does "their awareness of the plural nature of Israeli society and of the importance of tolerance and inclusiveness." Hence the great irony hidden between the lines of the Guttman study: the power that Jewish religious groups are gaining may make them recognize that Israel's democratic society is also theirs to preserve. And that, one hopes, will help them understand that Jewish and democratic values aren't competing but complementary. Shmuel Rosner, an editor and columnist based in Tel Aviv, is senior political editor for The Jewish Journal.