Gesher, an organization whose mission is to bridge the gap amongst the different segments of Israeli society in order to develop a collective identity, has recently released the first comprehensive look at Israeli social attitudes towards the country’s unity.
The first Unity Day Index indicated a national agreement in favor of developing educational programs to counter the lack of unity by bringing students from different segments together for programming to foster inter-community relationships. It also indicated that Israeli institutions are more willing to cooperate to promote feelings of unity.
“There was an overwhelming response across all populations regarding how we should make the change,” said Yoni Sherizen, Director of Resource and Program Development at Gesher. “Everyone believes that educating our children would be the best way to address this problem.”
Plans have already been made to organize educational programs to bring kids and teenagers from various demographic groups together. The Israeli Ministry of Education is on site as a key partner in planning these programs. The hope is to eventually extend these programs beyond Israel to Jewish communities in the rest of the world. “We are already planning a series of meetings between young adults…some have already started. We are also making plans for next year’s Unity Day,” said Sherizen.
The Unity Day Index was developed as part of the Unity Day that Israel held on June 3rd, in commemoration of the murder of the three boys, Eyal, Gil-ad and Naftali. The Index will serve as a comprehensive score for the level of unity that Israelis feel, possibly the country’s biggest social challenge.
“The idea for the index was formed sadly out of the tragedy that last year brought us together in such a powerful way,” explained Sherizen. “We used that as an inspiration to spark greater unity and to check in at this time next year to see how we’ve improved.” The Index will be taken annually each year, and will reflect the sentiments of Israelis regarding the nation’s unity as new initiatives are taken to foster a growing sense of unity amongst the country’s people.
The Index found that 46 percent of respondents said that the disunity in Israel was a significant issue to them, which was thought about on a regular basis. A correlation between concern over Israel’s disunity and religious observance was found; secular and traditional respondents expressed concern in higher levels (53 percent) than religious (40 percent) or chareidi respondents (27 percent).
While only 13 percent of Israelis felt that the nation was likely to form a greater sense of unity in the next five years, a full 81 percent of Israelis agreed with the statement, “I fully respect Jews from all aspects of society, even when I don’t agree with them.”
“It became clear that we are much more united in times of crisis, it doesn’t matter what population we come from,” said Sherizen. “A challenge that we face is to be able to go beyond conflict, and to make sure that unity doesn’t only exist around tragedy.” The resounding majority of respondents said that times of war and tragedy foster a sense of unity throughout the country. When asked about the impact of negative news on unity, 80% answered that it had a tremendous impact.
The process of conducting the Index began about six months ago, by a committee of different voices, many of whom were volunteers. Gesher enlisted individuals who had experience with measurements and quantitative analysis and hired an expert survey company. The study was supported by the UJA Federation of New York and conducted by the Zofnat Research Institute, through internet and phone based surveys so both secular and Hareidi households could participate in the study.
Hopefully, with new initiatives and upcoming educational programs in place, next year’s Unity Index will reflect an even greater sense of oneness amongst Israel’s people.
By Esther Hirsch
