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| Tuesday February 21st, 2012 |
by Jason KeheSurveys often bring out the worst in journalists. They don't require actual reporting—just imagination. We see a collection of numbers, determine which are the sexiest or the most shocking and slap on some "explanatory narrative." Bim, bam, boom—it's journalism. Then we congratulate ourselves for providing our readers with "the real story."
Of course, the problem is that, in our effort to simplify, distill and explain, we sometimes end up simply distorting. Several of the most recent instances of distortion in the world of religion reporting followed the publication of the Guttman Center's "A Portrait of Israeli Jews."
It was the third survey in a series, begun in 1991 and repeated in 1999, that seeks to measure the changing religious profile of Israeli society, an important and valuable project. The explanatory narrative to emerge from the findings—the context, the trend, the "so what"—was, during the first few days, relatively simple: Israel is getting more religious.
That in itself was a fair conclusion, and some variation of "Record number of Israeli Jews believe in God" was the go-to headline. But after those initial reports, some journalists began to commit one of the more grievous sins of the profession—creating conflict under the guise of providing context. What resulted were headlines like this: "The end of the secular majority." Suddenly, the Guttman survey heralded the end of democratic Israel.
That's a sexy narrative, isn't it? "Survey puts fate of Israel democracy in doubt" is sure to get more readers than "80 percent of Jews believe in God." But what many of these reports failed to explain was why increased religiosity supposedly equals decreased democracy.
Yes, religious orthodoxy usually doesn't foster democratic values like tolerance and equality; in that sense, an increase in Israeli Jewishness could reasonably be seen as troubling. It might even be the case that Israel is experiencing a surge in orthodox religious power and expression. But is that what this survey actually, unambiguously reveals?
From 1991 to 1999, the authors saw a marked decrease in religiosity, which they attributed to the massive influx of Russian immigrants. But that decrease did not last long, and the numbers have now returned to 1991 values, presumably because the Russians have assimilated. So if we cut out 1999, the change isn't so drastic at all—in fact, it just reflects a stabilization of Israel's religious profile. Is that cause for such great concern? Was there ever really a "secular majority" to begin with, or was that just a statistical blip of the mid-'90s?
Also clear is the finding that the increase in religiosity manifests mainly in the observance of Jewish customs and rituals, not in "practices which we categorized as 'religious,'" the survey authors say. So it's circumcisions and bar mitzvahs that are on the rise, not necessarily outmoded orthodox practices. In fact, the number of orthodox Jews has only increased by a couple of percentage points. And what do wolf-crying pundits make of the fact that a large majority of respondents (73 percent) believe Israel can be both a Jewish and a democratic state, or that most think women deserve better treatment? These aren't the viewpoints of a burgeoning theocracy.
The picture of Israel that emerges from the 121-page survey, which anyone who covers this story should at least skim, is of a very religious but ultimately tolerance-minded society. Yes, there is great, possibly growing pride in being Jewish in Israel. But is that so worrisome—or, really, so shocking—for the so-called "Jewish state"? No—and it doesn't signal the end of Israeli democracy. Responsible journalists should know better than to trust numbers on a page.
Jason Kehe is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is currently finishing his B.A. in Print and Digital Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and is the Assistant Book Editor at Los Angeles magazine. He has spent the past three years writing and reporting on L.A. arts, with a special focus on theater coverage. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Jewish Journal, Daily Trojan and Neon Tommy.com, where he served as Senior Arts Editor for two years. Jason also studies neuroscience and film.
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