This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1989, Volume 6, Number 1, pages 32-68. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

State of Israel: Report of the Interministerial Committee Set Up to Examine Cults ("New Groups") in Israel

Editor's Note

In keeping with its policy of reprinting for wider distribution important official reports concerning cults and manipulative social influence, the CSJ is publishing an English translation of Part I of an Israeli government report on cults. (The rest of the report is currently available in Hebrew only.) The opinions expressed are those of the inter-ministerial committee that prepared the report and are not necessarily shared by the CSJ. Comments, as always, are welcome.

Preface

In February 1987 a report was submitted to the Israeli Minister of Education entitled Report Of The Interministerial Committee Set Up To Examine Cults ("New Groups") In Israel.

The report was the result of a five-year study undertaken by a special committee appointed in February 1982 and chaired by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mrs. Miriam Glazer-Taasa, M.K. The Committee was interdisciplinary reflecting the complexity of the cult phenomenon and the fact that it touched on all aspects of life and culture. Its members comprised senior officials from the Ministries of Education, Health, Interior, Police, Justice, Religion, and Foreign Affairs, several academic sociologists, experienced professionals in mental health care, including the chief psychologist of the Israeli Defence Forces and the chief psychiatrist of the Kibbutz family health clinic service.

The impetus for the setting up of the Committee was the increasing number of inquiries and complaints concerning new groups with a religious, therapeutic, or pseudotherapeutic orientation (known popularly as "cults"), which began to reach different Israeli government offices at the beginning of the 1970s. The increased activity of the new groups in the years following led to a new wave of requests at the beginning of the 1980s from ordinary citizens touched by the phenomenon, and from different groups of professionals (doctors, psychologists, lawyers and others), who were united in their opinion that there was real cause for concern and that the matter should be the subject of official investigation. These views were reinforced by the increasing number of studies and published material on the phenomenon and the broad coverage given to the whole subject by the mass media.

The Committee's initial brief from the Israeli Minister of Education was to examine the subject of "mystical eastern cults in Israel and to make recommendations on how to respond to the phenomenon." This mandate was interpreted by the Committee (with the approval of the Minister) to include broadly the whole field of what was popularly known as cult activity in Israel.

The final report of the Committee consists of over five hundred pages and is divided into four parts. Part One contains a brief introduction to the cult phenomenon, a description of the work of the Committee, conclusions, and recommendations.

Part Two (entitled Appendix "A") contains a description and analysis of the practices and ideologies of the ten cults ("new groups") examined in detail by the Committee and includes references to documents and writings of the groups which have not previously been made available to the public. A special stress in this section is given to two major groups which are active in Israel - EST and Emin. The other groups examined are Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Bhagwan Rajneesh, Ananda Marga, Unification Church ("Moonies"), ISKCON-International Society of Krishna Consciousness, D.L.M.-Divine Light Mission, Finger of God.

Part Three (entitled Appendix "B") contains a legal survey of the cults and the law, as well as extracts from legal proceedings brought by one of the groups examined (EST), against the Committee.

Part Four (entitled "Bibliography) contains an extensive bibliography including a special bibliography on the cult phenomenon in general, and specific bibliographies on each of the ten groups examined by the Committee.

The following extract is an abridged translation of Part One of the Report.
 

Full text available through ICSA E-Library.