Mutual Perceptions of Religious and Secular Jews in Israel

Three hundred and eighty Israeli students in the eleventh grade, equally divided between children attending religious schools and children attending secular schools, completed questionnaires on the conflict between religious and secular Jews. Included were questions on ethnic and religious identity; amount and evaluation of interaction between the two groups; evaluation of the past, present, and future; and possible scenarios regarding solutions. In each set of questions the students were asked about their own views and how they believe the other group sees these issues. Analyses comparing the two groups revealed that in every set of questions, the secular viewed the religious significantly more negatively than the religious viewed the secular. The theory that equal status contact is a factor in conflict resolution was tested by correlating amount of actual contact and choice of solution. Correlations between evaluation of the relationship and choice of solutions showed that the more positively the students viewed the relationship, the less they accepted solutions with great intolerance and little contact. The major inference of this study, supported strongly and consistently by the data, is that the secular, believing their freedom of choice and style of life to be threatened, think, feel, and act accordingly. The religious, who do not face this problem, seem to be far less negative and extreme in their views.