When The State Winks: The Performance Of Jewish Conversion In Israel (religion, Culture, And Public Life)
by Michal Kravel-Tovi /
2017 / English / EPUB
18.6 MB Download
Religious conversion is often associated with ideals of religious
sincerity. But in a society in which religious belonging is
entangled with ethnonational citizenship and confers political
privilege, a convert might well have multilayered motives. Over the
last two decades, mass non-Jewish immigration to Israel, especially
from the former Soviet Union, has sparked heated debates over the
Jewish state’s conversion policy and intensified suspicion of
converts’ sincerity.
Religious conversion is often associated with ideals of religious
sincerity. But in a society in which religious belonging is
entangled with ethnonational citizenship and confers political
privilege, a convert might well have multilayered motives. Over the
last two decades, mass non-Jewish immigration to Israel, especially
from the former Soviet Union, has sparked heated debates over the
Jewish state’s conversion policy and intensified suspicion of
converts’ sincerity.When the State Winks
When the State Winks carefully traces
the performance of state-endorsed Orthodox conversion to highlight
the collaborative labor that goes into the making of the Israeli
state and its Jewish citizens.
carefully traces
the performance of state-endorsed Orthodox conversion to highlight
the collaborative labor that goes into the making of the Israeli
state and its Jewish citizens.
In a rich ethnographic narrative based on fieldwork in conversion
schools, rabbinic courts, and ritual bathhouses, Michal Kravel-Tovi
follows conversion candidates―mostly secular young women from a
former Soviet background―and state conversion agents, mostly
religious Zionists caught between the contradictory demands of
their nationalist and religious commitments. She complicates the
popular perception that conversion is a “wink-wink” relationship in
which both sides agree to treat the converts’ pretenses of
observance as real. Instead, she demonstrates how their
interdependent performances blur any clear boundary between sincere
and empty conversions. Alongside detailed ethnography,
In a rich ethnographic narrative based on fieldwork in conversion
schools, rabbinic courts, and ritual bathhouses, Michal Kravel-Tovi
follows conversion candidates―mostly secular young women from a
former Soviet background―and state conversion agents, mostly
religious Zionists caught between the contradictory demands of
their nationalist and religious commitments. She complicates the
popular perception that conversion is a “wink-wink” relationship in
which both sides agree to treat the converts’ pretenses of
observance as real. Instead, she demonstrates how their
interdependent performances blur any clear boundary between sincere
and empty conversions. Alongside detailed ethnography,When the
State Winks
When the
State Winks develops new ways to think about the complex
connection between religious conversion and the nation-state.
Kravel-Tovi emphasizes how state power and morality is managed
through “winking”―the subtle exchanges and performances that
animate everyday institutional encounters between state and
citizen. In a country marked by tension between official
religiosity and a predominantly secular Jewish population, winking
permits the state to save its Jewish face.
develops new ways to think about the complex
connection between religious conversion and the nation-state.
Kravel-Tovi emphasizes how state power and morality is managed
through “winking”―the subtle exchanges and performances that
animate everyday institutional encounters between state and
citizen. In a country marked by tension between official
religiosity and a predominantly secular Jewish population, winking
permits the state to save its Jewish face.