Israel
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | Anna Maria Tremonti,Dov Elbaum |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300402 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DOV
ELBAUM
&
ANNA
MARIA
TREMONTI
Israel
A
house
divided
IN
DEFERENCE
TO
HER HUSBAND'S
NEW
AND
INCREASING
RELIGIOUS
devotion,
Yifat
Elharar
decided
to
clear
out
her
closets.
Tossing
out
her
miniskirts
and
shorts
was
a
symbolic
casting-off
of
a
more
provocative
secular
life
in
favour
of
the
forced
modesty
of
the
extremely
religious.
But
her
cosmetic
moves
toward
Ultra-Orthodox
Judaism
were
far
from
complete:
she
refused
to hide
her
long
auburn
hair
under
a
wig
or
a
hat
or
to
wear
long
skirts,
opting
instead
for
trousers,
saying
she
just
didn't
have
the
necessary
religious
passion
for
the
full
uniform.
Even
though
she
agreed
to
send her
two
oldest
children
to
religious
schools
and
to
observe
the
religious
ritual
of
the
sabbath,
her
defiance
over
her
cloth-
ing
threatened
her
marriage
to
Ilan,
a
championship
soccer
player
who
gave
up
a
lucrative'career
in
sport
to
study
in
a
yeshiva
(religious
school)
and
chauffeur
a
religious
member
of
the
Israeli
knesset.
His
rabbis
urged
patience,
confident
she
would
become
more
accepting
of
his
ways.
A
year
and
a
half
later
they
were
still
together
-
she
was slowly
giving
in
and adapting
her
wardrobe
-
another
young
couple
raising
a
family
in
the
jumbled
atmosphere
of
Jerusalem,
where
Ultra-Orthodox
Jews
live
in
separate
neighbourhoods
from
less
obser-
vant
and
secular
Israelis,
where
weekend
traffic
is
detoured
to accom-
modate
the
religious,
and
where
secular
teenagers
spend
noisy
sabbath
DOVELBA UM
is
ajournalist
specializing
in
religious
issues
anda
lecturer
on
Judaism
at
Tel
Aviv
University.
He
is
the
author
of
the
novel,
Elul
Time
(TelAviv:
Am-Oved
1997).
ANNA
MARIA
TREMONTI
is
the
former
Middle
East
correspondent
for
Canadian
Broadcasting
Cor-
poration
Television
News. She
is
now
a
CBC
correspondent
in
Washington,
DC.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Autumn
1998
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