This book examines religion in Israeli society: what it is and how it functions. Here is a clear picture of how Judaism provides a matrix of continuity for Israeli society notwithstanding a wide diversity of beliefs and practices.

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi is in the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa, Israel. The author of several books, he is co-editor with Zvi Sobel of Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel, also published by SUNY Press.

Zvi Sobel teaches in the Sociology Department at the University of Haifa, Israel. He is the author of Christianity: The 13th Tribe and Migrants From the Promised Land. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi teaches in the Psychology Department at the University of Haifa and is the co-author of The Social Psychology of Religion with M. Argyle and Research in Religious Behaviour: Selected Readings.

"There is a general lack of literature dealing specifically with the roles of religious and secular life in contemporary Israel. In addition, the public perception in this country, is that social and political life in Israel is often equated with orthodox Judaism. For this reason his book provides an important contribution to the understanding of contemporary Israel." — Gertrude Lenzer, Brooklyn College