Two people seated on orange chairs on a Tel Aviv beach, with the city's seafront hotels in the background, from the documentary series Secularism

Secularism

5
episodes
2024

The series tackles the complexities and paradoxes of secularism in Israel and the fluidity of secular identity. Through encounters with figures from the worlds of culture, academia, and politics, it navigates between the personal and the public, and between daily life and institutional bureaucracy. It is a historical and sociological journey focusing on the widely discussed yet elusive phenomenon known as "Israeli secularism."

Series by: Anat Zeltzer, the late Modi Bar-On, Sinai Abt, Ayelet Ofarim • Editor-in-Chief: Ayelet Ofarim • Editing and Research Management: Sinai Abt • Research: Rina Baruch, Racheli Wasserman, Bosmat Sandberg, Tami Riklis, Itai Ziv • Sound Recordists: Vitaly Grinshpan, Sharon Luzon, Yaniv Levi • Executive Producer: Guy Barak • Designer: Merav Ben Simon

Episode
1

From the Self to the Selfie

What is Judaism? Napoleon's question takes a new direction with Herzl and the Zionist movement.

Subtitles:

English

0:56:11

Episode
2

Secularism and State

Why does Israel have no constitution? The episode explores the tug-of-war between religion and state.

Subtitles:

English

0:52:52

Episode
3
Hebrew subs only

There is No God, But He Gave Us the Land

How religious longing turned into a secular connection to an actual land.

Subtitles:

Hebrew

0:56:21

Episode
4
Hebrew subs only

The Language and the Story

The story of Jewish secularism through the cultural project that formulated a new national narrative.

Subtitles:

Hebrew

0:57:59

Episode
5

From the Self to the Selfie

A journey into the development of the free individual and how they placed themselves at the center.

Subtitles:

English

0:56:11