The Challenge of Shas

Shas is the movement which changed fundamentally the relationship between religion, ethnicity and politics by leading a religious and ethnic revival among Israel's North African and Middle Eastern Jews. Led, astonishingly, by Sephardi Rabbis trained in ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi yeshivas, it has brought about a mass religious and ethnic revival and shaken the political establishment, provoking hate, fear and undying loyalty in equal measure.

David Lehmann is Reader in Social Science at Cambridge University.

Batia Siebzehner is Research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Head of the Informal Education Department, Beit Berl College, Israel.