The aim of this study is to shed light on the controversy regarding two competing determinants of childbearing behaviour in Israel – religiosity and nationalism. Israel is considered a progressing democracy, which harbors a high-income economy; however, its fertility remains high. Two alternative explanations address this phenomenon: the first regards high levels of religiosity as the major responsible factor. According to the second, high fertility stems from the nationalist sentiment, since pressing security conditions in the country might facilitate less libertarian attitudes, and emphasize the traditional family as a stable and protected from the external world unit. Using structural equation modeling, the current study estimates the contribution of each of these two factors to the explained variance in Jewish fertility. Religiosity and nationalism are constructed as latent variables, based on the individual-level observed measures. These originate from cross-sectional data on political attitudes and religious behaviour. Religiosity was found to be the main determinant of fertility, while nationalism could not explain fertility on its own, although was found to be highly connected to religiosity. These results were found robust in various models. Migrational background from the former Soviet Union and traditional attitudes toward gender roles were found to be additional important explanatory factors. The findings are discussed and a comprehensive model is offered.
