Becoming Sincere: Why Do Jewish Inmates in Israeli Prisons Embrace Religion?
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Author | Michal Morag,Elly Teman |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306624X20909213 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2020
Article
International Journal of
Offender Therapy and
Becoming Sincere: Why
Comparative Criminology
2021, Vol. 65(5) 523 –542
Do Jewish Inmates in Israeli
© The Author(s) 2020
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Prisons Embrace Religion?
https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20909213
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20909213
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo
Elly Teman1 and Michal Morag1
Abstract
Why do Jewish inmates in Israeli prisons embrace religion? What initially motivates
them to participate in prayers during incarceration and what are their motivations
to make a deeper commitment to observe orthodox Judaism while in prison? We
conducted 30 qualitative interviews with 29 Jewish–Israeli men who underwent a
process of “religious invigoration” or “religious strengthening” during their prison
term and chose to continue being observant following release. We examine their
motivations to initially participate in the less restrictive prison seminaries as well
as their motivations to transfer to religious wards where incarcerated men must
commit to a fully religious lifestyle. Building on the scholarship on the motivations
and benefits of religious participation and conversion in prison, we suggest that
incarcerated Jewish–Israeli men embrace religion for both sincere reasons and for
the extrinsic benefits. Those who progress to a second stage of religious observance
and transfer to religious wards do so primarily for extrinsic benefits. However,
they report many intrinsic benefits of religion that lead them to continue to pursue
religion once released. We suggest that men have different motivations at different
stages of the path of religious invigoration in prison but that those men who commit
to observance gain intrinsic benefits that may give them sincere reasons to continue
religion upon reentry.
Keywords
Israel, jailhouse religion, prison religion, Judaism, motivations
1Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel
Corresponding Author:
Elly Teman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin
Academic Center, Emek Hefer 4025000, Israel.
Email: ellyt@ruppin.ac.il
524
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(5)
Introduction
A popular perception in the Israeli public sphere is that Jewish men after arrest on
suspicion of criminal acts immediately embrace superficial signs of religiosity. They
put on a yarmulke (skullcap) and begin growing a beard to look more religious. Israel’s
national news has called Jewish jailhouse conversions “an Israeli phenomenon”1 as
notorious criminals, even crime kingpins, appear routinely in the news media wearing
yarmulkes during court hearings. The media cynically questions their sincerity, insinu-
ating instrumental motivations. Skepticism is also common in the reception of “jail-
house conversions” elsewhere (Maruna et al., 2006).
Prison conversions to Evangelical Christianity and Islam occur widely in U.S. and
European prisons (Dammer, 2002; Duwe et al., 2015; Hallett et al., 2015; Hallett &
Johnson, 2014; Kerley & Copes, 2009). The scholarship looks both at participation in
religious and spiritual activities in prison, such as bible study, as well as “radical
change” among prisoners who experience “new found or greatly revitalized faith”
accompanied by a change in their behaviors, social affiliations, attitudes, thoughts, and
self-understandings (Maruna et al., 2006, p. 162). This type of conversion often
involves “a singular moment of commitment to faith” that is often conceived of as
being “born again” (Kerley & Copes, 2009, p. 228).
This article looks at a particular path of embracing religion that has become popular
in Israel prisons among Jewish men over the past two decades. Referred to as “reli-
gious strengthening” or “religious invigoration” (hithazkut), it involves a strengthen-
ing in belief and intensification of performance of religious practices in daily life
without the same level of commitment as the full path of repentance known as hazara
betshuva (Leon & Lavie, 2013). On this path, one is not “born again” in a radical sense
but is more involved in religion than before, perhaps wearing a skullcap and attending
prayers but adopting more restrictive religious obligations gradually and selectively.
The wide scope of the phenomenon of religious invigoration in Israeli prisons is
exemplified in the levels of participation in religious seminaries (midrashiot) operated
by rabbis and seminary students within the prison system. Attended by approximately
1,200 inmates—around one-fourth of incarcerated Jewish–Israeli men, the number of
these seminaries expanded threefold from 2007 to 2016.2 Participants must be Jewish,
literate, and have a minimum of 8 years education; they agree to attend morning
prayers and Torah (bible) study classes but are not required to lead a religious lifestyle
(Haviv et al., 2019). Prisoners who wish to practice a further level of observance can
transfer to separate, religious wards that are more selective; to be admitted, prisoners
must commit to an intensive schedule of prayer and religious study groups. They must
also observe religious rituals, including wearing a yarmulke (skullcap), keeping kosher
dietary laws, and refraining from turning on lights and watching television on the
Sabbath.
In comparison with the large number of men in the seminaries, fewer inmates trans-
fer to religious wards—approximately 450 inmates as of 2018 (Haviv et al., 2020).
Still, these wards are growing in number, indicating that the number of men wishing
to commit further to the path of religious invigoration is also expanding. From 2010 to
Teman and Morag
525
2016, the number of religious wards in Israeli prisons doubled, from three to six across
the country. Two of these wards (the leshem wings) are for inmates who were ultraor-
thodox sector before imprisonment, but four (the agaf dati wings) comprised inmates
who embraced religion during incarceration, many having first participated in semi-
naries and choosing to commit to the more demanding obligations of religious obser-
vance in these wings.
A recent quantitative study by Haviv et al. (2020) indicated that the risk of recidi-
vism was not lower for seminary participants in Israeli prisons in comparison with
nonparticipant Jewish men. However, for men who first participated in the seminaries
and later transferred to the religious wards, the relative risk of rearrest within 5 years
of release was 12.4% lower than among nonparticipant Jewish men. The study indi-
cates that as men become more committed to religion, they are less likely to recidivate;
yet, it does not explain what motivates incarcerated Jewish men to initially embrace
religion in prison or why they may choose to commit further to this path over time.
Our qualitative study explores the motivations and benefits of religious invigora-
tion in prison. We interviewed 29 men who progressed through two stages on this path:
(a) participation in the religious seminaries and (b) transfer to religious wards. The
men in our study had all been released from their most recent prison term into a reli-
gious reentry program run by the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority. To enter the reen-
try program, they had to commit to attending religious group study sessions and
one-on-one counseling with a religious counselor for at least a year. By exploring the
path of these men, who went through these stages of religious invigoration and chose
to continue to “strengthen” religiously on the outside, we can better understand the
various stages of the invigoration process in prison and its benefits. Elsewhere (Morag
& Teman, 2018), we have described the religious reentry program and the religious
tools that men felt helped them negotiate their return to society. Here, our focus is on
the stages of religiosity during incarceration.
Our findings suggest that the men had different motivations at each stage of the
path. They had some intrinsic but mainly extrinsic motivations for initial participation
in the seminaries and for transferring to the religious wards. The men reported many
intrinsic benefits of religiosity they had gained on this path, and these were their pri-
mary motivations to continue pursuing religion after release. Our findings challenge
the insincere/sincere dichotomy in the scholarship by suggesting the possibility of
motivations gradually changing at different stages as men embrace religion during
incarceration, from predominantly insincere to primarily sincere motivations. This is
discussed in relation to the scholarship on motivations for religious participation in
prison.
Literature Review
An extensive body of evidence has accumulated on religion-based programs within
prisons and their effect on the reform of the incarcerated (Camp et al., 2008; Clear &
Sumter, 2002; Duwe & Johnson, 2013; Johnson, 2004; Mears et al., 2006; O’Connor
& Perreyclear, 2002). The research clearly distinguishes between various motivations
526
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(5)
for becoming religious in prison, as well as the benefits of participation in religious
programs while incarcerated.
Based on his ethnographic study of two large maximum security prisons in the
United States, Dammer (2002) distinguishes...
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