Fundamentalism's encounters with citizenship: The Haredim in Israel

This paper centers on the challenge that fundamentalist groups - such as the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community (the Haredim) - pose for citizenship. It focuses on two issues: challenges centering on contribution to and sacrifice for the Israeli nation-state; and alternatives that fundamentalism poses to definitions of citizenship. Empirically, it is based on research in three arenas: service in the Israeli military; a voluntary organization aiding state agencies after terror attacks (ZAKA), and a charitable association offering help in health and social welfare (Yad Sarah). Two trends - challenges to concepts of security and the state, and the weakening of the state in the economic sphere and social services - have opened up spaces for fundamentalist groups to operate in civil society and complement the state. The Haredi community has gradually developed a new concept of inclusion that both fits the state-centred view of citizenship and their own fundamentalist perspective.