Religious orthodoxy is based on ‘separateness’ – seclusion within the confines of the community and the construction of barriers against the intrusion of heresy. To achieve this end the study of the Bible and Jewish law is made into a precise and conservative ritual, and complete obedience to the dictates of rabbis is required. As Rabbi Moses Sofer (‘the Hatam Sofer’) put it, ‘Anything new is forbidden by the Bible.’

Agudat Israel rejected Zionism as idolatry which challenged the natural course of Jewish history, and the orthodox community regarded it as a licentious and heretical movement. The pamphlets and broadsheets issued by orthodox Jewry represent the most virulent assaults ever made on Zionism. Agudat Israel refused to participate in the institutions of the Zionist Movement, cast doubts on the faith of religious Zionists and repudiated the hope underlying secular sovereignty. A Jewish state had to be subject to ‘the will of the Lord, as set forth in the Bible’. Orthodoxy regarded itself as ‘exiled among brethren’ until such time as the kingdom of heaven should be established, and the Zionist authorities were perceived as being as alien as any foreign rule.

The history of Agudat Israel, which was founded in 1912, is unusual. The fact that it took the form of a political party is in itself surprising.