In recent years, Israeli state policies have attempted to dissuade Orthodox Jews from creating large families, an objective that flies in the face of traditional practices in their community. As state desires to cultivate a high-income, tech-centered nation come into greater conflict with common Orthodox familial practices, many Jewish couples are finding it increasingly difficult to actualize their reproductive aims and communal expectations.

In “The State of Desire”, Lea Taragin-Zeller utilizes interviews to provide an intimate account of the delicate balance between personal desires and those of the state. Taragin-Zeller takes the reader beyond Orthodox taboos, capturing how cracks in religious convictions engender a painful process of re-orientating desires to reproduce amidst shrinking public support, feminism, and new ideals of romance, intimacy and parenting.