ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews studies on Israeli Judaism and digital media in light of the theoretical considerations of mediatization. It presents how Israeli Judaism has historically been highly mediatized. The chapter provides an overview of past scholarly work on Israeli Judaism and digital media. It highlights two specific case studies: religious community and identity construction through humor in social media, and religious communal boundary negotiation online. The chapter discusses the benefits and disadvantages of using mediatization theories and suggest combining it with the theoretical approach of Religious Social Shaping of Technology. Visual media such as television, cinema and visual art are less accepted in Jewish religious circles. Jewish Religious communities in Israel have reacted to digital media in various ways, mostly through negotiation or rejection. O. Golan and H. A. Campbell show how Jewish religious webmasters and content managers take their work seriously and negotiate both technological affordances and social-religious needs and knowledge.
