| Summary/Abstract |
Israel seems in many ways to be becoming increasingly religious. A number of religious ministers, most notably Minister of Education Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party, have become increasingly outspoken about their aspirations to turn Israel into a religious state and have gained enough power to begin to realize them: Bennett’s creation of a Jewish Identity Administration is one noteworthy example. Religious parties, once on the sidelines, hold more central positions in the government, and it may well be that for the first time an ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi representative — Rabbi Yaacov Litzman, United Torah Judaism — will become a full government minister. Thus one may well ask: Was this what Zionism was meant to be? Was and is Israel destined to become a religious state?
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