Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies, vol 5 33 Jew Age: Jewish Praxis in Israeli New Age Discourse 1 Marianna Ruah-Midbar and Adam Klin Oron * New Age phenomena are increasingly present and legitimated in Israel, although quantitative data are sparse. The origins of New Age phenomena in Israel may be located along an axis, ranging from shared global (western) forms to home-grown cultural products. Analyses of selected qualitative data at the local level explore the various relational approaches between New Age and traditional Jewish praxis along a secondary axis, ranging from indifference and opposition to adaptation and preservation. Indicative examples from the field suggest that, at the margins of established Israeli identities, a new minority group identity, that is of a unique local character, is distinguishable: what may be termed “Jew Age”. 1. The New Age in Israel In the course of its global spread, the New Age has not passed over Israeli society. During the last decade, New Age phenomena have grown strong in Israel, both in number and social standing; that is, in their legitimation. However, much in the same manner that the New Age has been late in arriving in Israel in comparison with Western countries, local scholarly research of it has also been delayed, and to date, very little has been published. ,2 In this paper, we shall explore the various origins of Israeli New Age, both imports from the West and local products. We focus on one significant local issue: the attitude towards binding Jewish practices – halacha, or Jewish law (which we define in this article broadly, to also include minhag, “custom”). After discussing the general New Age discourse in Israel, and in a similar manner to Kemp’s examination (2001) of the Christaquarian group – an etic category that is not used emically for self-identification, but as a useful analytical category – we suggest that a segment of this discourse be termed “Jew Age”. We believe this will shed light upon wider issues: Israeli society, the New Age and the nature of glocality. Virtually no reliable quantitative data on the extent of Israeli New Age phenomena exists, but several examples can hint at both the extent and the penetration of these into the mainstream. 3 A survey conducted in 2000 found that over a third of Israelis have used complementary and alternative medicine (“CAM”), and between 6,000 and 10,000 people enroll annually in colleges training CAM practitioners, colleges that had trained over 110,000 people by 1999 (Fadlon 2005: 28, 34; Ruah-Midbar 2006: 207). 4 Each year dozens of New Age festivals take place, with the major festival drawing over 50,000 participants (Ruah-Midbar 2006: 144-146) – the size of an average Israeli town. The principal New Age magazines in the country, Hayim Aherim, (“Other Life”) and Dereh Ha-Osher (“Way of Bliss”) reported in 2007 that they had 12,000 and 15,000 subscribers, respectively. Many New Age books have become national bestsellers, * © Marianna Ruah-Midbar and Adam Klin Oron. E-mail: ruahmidbar@012.net.il , adam@forum2.org.