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Three main trends in Israeli Judaism have been characterized as fundamentalist: militant religious Zionism, the ultra-Orthodoxy of the Ashkenazim (Jews of eastern European origin), and the ultra-Orthodoxy of the Sephardim (Jews of Middle Eastern origin) as represented by the Shas political party. All three groups stress the need for strict conformity to the religious laws and moral precepts contained in the sacred Jewish texts, the Torah and the Talmud. The fundamentalist impulse in Israel is rooted in events that took place well before the country’s founding in 1948. Since the destruction of Jerusalem’s Second Temple by the Romans in 70 ...(100 of 5037 words)