opinion
Is Chutzpah a Bug or a Feature
of Israeli Life?
Uri Pilichowski
16 MAY 18, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
drivers seem to wake up angry and honking their
car horns every morning. Traffic lights barely turn
green and cars three or four back in line already start
honking their horns. There’s little to no consideration
for the angst this causes other drivers or the noise
pollution that disturbs entire neighborhoods every
morning. The general lack of decorum creeps into
every aspect of Israeli life. Store clerks are more
likely to scold and refuse to help than offer customer
service, and government workers are obstinate
and create bureaucratic quagmires that seem
insurmountable. Anglo immigrants to Israel from countries like
England, Australia, South Africa and America
struggle the most with Israeli chutzpah and lack
of formality. The constant honking grates on their
nerves, the lack of customer service befuddles them
and the government bureaucracy upsets them to
levels where they almost want to find Theodor Herzl
and convince him to keep at his job as a journalist
instead of creating Zionism. When talking to Anglo
immigrants in Israel, complaints about these aspects
of Israeli society are frequently heard, along with
dismay that Israelis cannot act with more refinement
and civility.

The immigrants who strive to improve (in their
eyes) Israeli society through Anglo-style patience,
courtesy and politeness fail to recognize that Israel
could only have succeeded because of chutzpah
and lack of formality. Herzl and other early Zionist
activists’ audaciousness in attempting to convince
the world to give the Jewish people their historic
homeland and allow them to create a state required
an overdose of chutzpah. When the British turned
their backs on the Jewish people with their White
Paper, the Jewish people’s chutzpah led them to
fight the British instead of giving up on the dream of
their own state.

An argument can be made that refining Israeli life
to look more like Anglo countries could harm Israel’s
success. Israeli chutzpah isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

Israel’s triumph is directly tied to its culture. The
IDF didn’t create this lack of formality, it is inherent
in Israeli life. It was forged in the swamps the early
Zionists drained, the fields where Haganah and
Irgun fighters fought to defend the nascent state of
Israel and in the study halls where Torah scholars
who survived the Holocaust recreated their old
communities in a new land of Israel.

As long as Israeli chutzpah persists, Israel will
continue to overcome impossible odds. ■
Rabbi Uri Pilichowski is a senior educator at
numerous educational institutions. The author of
three books, he teaches Torah, Zionism and Israel
studies. istock/gettyimages/Tanja Ristic
I srael has the chips stacked against it when it
comes to economic success.

Unlike many other Middle Eastern states, Israel
has no natural resources to bolster its economy.

While other nations’ treasuries overflow with oil
money, 60% of Israel is empty desert. Add to this
Israel’s security concerns, and the Jewish state’s
survival is considered by many to be miraculous and
its success inexplicable.

In their book “Start-Up Nation,” authors Dan Senor
and Saul Singer took an innovative approach to
explaining Israeli hi-tech companies’ considerable
success in the global marketplace. Senor and Singer
pointed to Israel’s mandatory military service and
Israeli culture in general as the key to Israel’s
success. Military service shapes and forms the Israeli
population, as soldiers learn teamwork, courage and,
most importantly for the roles they’ll be playing in
civilian life, how to innovate.

Senor and Singer pointed to the fact that most
armies have a strict hierarchy in which high-ranking
officers give orders to lower-ranking officers with
no room for the latter to express their opinions. The
IDF is different. Lower-ranking officers are not only
allowed to offer their opinions but are encouraged
to do so.

The lack of formality in the IDF can seem
outrageous to experienced soldiers from other
militaries. They sometimes say there’s only one word
for it — chutzpah. The IDF’s indulgence of chutzpah
encourages boldness of thought, creativity and
self-confidence. On the battlefield, these traits can
make the difference during harrowing operations
like the 1976 Entebbe rescue. In the high-tech
world, chutzpah fosters a culture of innovation
and creativity.

Israeli chutzpah spreads to realms outside the
battlefield and the marketplace. Most non-Israelis
who have watched a Knesset debate are shocked
by the raucous lack of decorum. Knesset members
yell at each other, interrupt speakers mid-sentence
and even openly mock each other. If chutzpah at its
best creates apps that change the world, chutzpah
at its worst manifests in a Knesset that resembles
an out-of-control kindergarten more than a
world-class parliament.

The lack of decorum in the Knesset isn’t only
attributable to chutzpah, but also to a general lack
of formality and sensitivity in Israeli society. Israeli