It Wasn’t Always So In this episode, I speak with Yair Halevy, a researcher of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) history, thought and sociology, about one of the most fascinating and surprising shifts in modern Jewish history: the transformation from what he calls “old Haredism” to “new Haredism.” Today, many people assume that the Haredi relationship to the State of Israel, Zionism, the army and broader Israeli society has always looked more or less the way it does now. Yair’s research challenges that assumption. We discuss his work on the mainstream Haredi response to the Six Day War, including the remarkable enthusiasm that appeared in Haredi newspapers and among major rabbinic voices at the time. In some cases, the victory was described in deeply religious and even redemptive language, including references to Geula (redemption) and the possibility that history was moving in a dramatically new direction. From there, we explore what changed in the following years. Yair describes three major features of “old Haredism”: a more positive posture toward the State of Israel, greater power in the hands of Haredi politicians and journalists, and a broader social and cultural openness to general Israeli society. By the 1970s, much of that began to shift. The conversation touches on the Six Day War, the rise of a more separatist Haredi identity, the movement of public authority toward rabbinic leadership, the brother-and-sister affair involving Rav Goren, the relationship between Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and religious Zionists, and the ways communities reshape their own memory over time. This is a conversation about Haredi society, Israeli history, Zionism, Geula (redemption), authority, openness, separation and the question of whether the present was really as inevitable as it often appears. Learn more about Yair Halevy’s doctoral dissertation, “The ‘New Haredism’ Revolution in Israel in the 1970’s,” here: https://cris.biu.ac.il/en/studentTheses/the-new-haredism-revolution-in-israel-in-the-1970s/
