BOB ABERNETHY: Our Cover Story this week on the state of Israel. And the question -- what kind of Jewish homeland should it be? A refuge for all the world's Jews, secular and religious, or a religious state in which Jewish law is civil law? As correspondent Paul Miller reports in the second of his three-part series, the question still haunts Israel, 50 years after its founding.

PAUL MILLER: A kibbutz once meant a collective farm. But the remote Rahel Kibbutz outside Jerusalem is a resort. It has water for the swimming pool and animals for the children's zoo. What's happened to the kibbutz is just one example of how the Zionist ideals of 50 years ago have been turned on their heads. The Zionists wanted to create what they called normalcy in a state filled with farmer soldiers. Those pioneers wanted homogeneity. Fifty years later, Israel has diversity. They wanted socialism. Israel is increasingly capitalist and high-tech. They were secular. Religious life in Israel has flourished to the point of tension with secular Jews. What has not changed in 50 years is Israel's role as a refuge for immigrants. Jewish newcomers from 100 countries created what is called a mosaic, not a melting pot.

Bella Portunov came in 1990, a part of an old Israeli joke about how the Russians arriving without violin cases were doctors. She carried her violin and now plays in a chamber orchestra in the city of Ashtov. Her dream has come true.

BELLA PORTUNOV: I think Israel is the place for Jews to be, to work here and strengthen the country. I think this is our place.

MILLER: But whose place is it? The split between secular Jews such as Bella and religious Jews has reached a point where a new poll this week shows 80 percent of Israelis expect a violent conflict between the groups.

Professor MOSHE HALBERTAL (Hebrew University & Hartman Institute): Israel cannot be simultaneously a homeland for all the Jews in which everybody feels at home and a Jewish state. It has to decide whether it wants to be a state for Jews or a Jewish state. It cannot be simultaneously both of them.

MILLER: The ultra-Orthodox, 15 percent of the population, believe a truly Jewish state can only be built around the Torah. They want the religious law, or halakhah, to be the civil law. Once they simply ignored the state. Now they seek power, and as members of the governing coalition, have tried to legislate restrictions on work or play on the Sabbath. Religious party leaders declined to be interviewed for this program because the interview might be broadcast on the Sabbath. The ultra-Orthodox have sought other changes in Israeli law, including guarantees that only Orthodox rabbis can perform conversions.

Prof. HALBERTAL: I would say as a religious Jew myself, I believe that the attempts by the religious parties to use the state power -- state coercive power for religious legislation harms not only the state, it harms religion. It has been a very corrupting force to religion. I don't believe that any Israeli will be closer to Judaism because of legislation.

MILLER: Secular Israelis, three quarters of the population, resent what they see as a tyranny of the minority. One leftist politician started a movement called Free Nation, to spite the ultrareligious, pressure politicians on behalf of secular Israelis, and educate the public about what he sees as a critical choice.