In this lecture, Dr Stav Shufan-Biton examines how Israeli Jews living outside Israel experience holy time, focusing on Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and local religious and civil holidays such as Halloween and Christmas.
Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research based on interviews and observations conducted within Israeli Jewish communities in Cambridge and London, the findings show that cultural distance and a sense of temporariness enable the selective adoption of Jewish mitzvot alongside openness to local ritual practices.
Interviewees with flexible religious identities, particularly those identifying as secular or traditional, actively choose rituals they perceive as enjoyable and meaningful. These include Jewish practices such as Hanukkah, Purim, or partial Sukkot decorations, as well as local practices such as trick-or-treating on Halloween, Christmas decorations, singing carols learned at school or kindergarten, and exchanging gifts. At the same time, some halakhic practices that were part of everyday life in Israel, including the weekly Friday night Kiddush, fasting or reduced activity on Yom Kippur, and partial observance of Passover, tend to be less consistently maintained in the new context.
Building on Ammerman’s framework of lived religion, the analysis highlights how enjoyment, curiosity, and a sense of magic, alongside child centered and family-oriented logics, shape ritual participation and contribute to a reconfiguration of ethnic and religious boundaries in everyday life.
Stav Shufan-Biton is a sociologist and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests focus on the sociology of religion, the sociology of time, and Israeli society. Her doctoral dissertation examined understandings of the weekend among Jews in Israel and resulted in several peer reviewed publications, which are available online. She currently studies experiences of sacred time among religious minorities, including Jews and other groups, across the UK, with support from the Argov Centre for the Study of Israel and the Jewish People.
