Jewish identity

Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an external set of religious, or legal, or sociological norms. Jewish identity does not need to imply religious orthodoxy. Accordingly, Jewish identity can be cultural in nature. Jewish identity can involve ties to the Jewish community. Orthodox Judaism bases Jewishness on matrilineal descent. According to Jewish law (halacha), all those born of a Jewish mother are considered Jewish, regardless of personal beliefs or level of observance of Jewish law. Progressive Judaism and Haymanot Judaism in general base Jewishness on having at least one Jewish parent, while Karaite Judaism bases Jewishness only on paternal lineage. These differences between the major Jewish movements are the source of the disagreement and debate about Who is a Jew?.

Jews who are atheists or Jews who follow other religions (Christianity etc) may have a Jewish identity. While the absolute majority of people with this identity are of Jewish ethnicity, people of a mixed Jewish and non-Jewish background or gentiles of Jewish ancestry may still have a sense of Jewish self-identity.

Components

Jewish identity can be described as consisting of three interconnected parts:

#Jewish peoplehood, an ethnic identity composed of several subdivisions that evolved in the Diaspora.
#Jewish religion, observance of spiritual and ritual tenets of Judaism.
# Jewish culture, celebration of traditions, secular and religious alike.

A cultural/ancestral concept

Jewish identity can be cultural, religious, or through ancestry. There are religious, cultural, and ancestral components to Jewish identity due to its fundamental non-proselytizing nature, as opposed to Christian or Muslim identity which are both "universal" religions in that they ascribe to the notion that their faith is meant to be spread throughout all of humanity, regardless of nationality. However, Jewish identity is firmly intertwined with Jewish ancestry dating back to the historical Kingdom of Israel, which was largely depopulated by the Roman Empire c. first century CE, leading to what is known as today as the Jewish Diaspora.

In contemporary sociology

Jewish identity began to gain the attention of Jewish sociologists in the United States with the publication of Marshall Sklare's "Lakeville studies". Among other topics explored in the studies was Sklare's notion of a "good Jew". The "good Jew" was essentially an idealized form of Jewish identity as expressed by the Lakeville respondents. Today, sociological measurements of Jewish identity have become the concern of the Jewish Federations who have sponsored numerous community studies across the U.S.; policy decisions (in areas such as funding, programming, etc.) have been shaped in part due to studies on Jewish identity.

Antisemitism and Jewish identity

According to the social-psychologist Simon Herman, antisemitism plays a part in shaping Jewish identity. This view is echoed by religious leaders such as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who writes that modern Jewish communities and the modern Jewish identity are deeply influenced by antisemitism.

Right-wing antisemitism, for example, is typically branch of white supremacy: it traditionally conceives of Jews as a distinct race with intrinsic, undesirable qualities that must be exterminated from the population. Left-wing antisemitism, by contrast, frequently views Jews as members of the white race, an idea that is a precursor to the criticism of Zionism as a racist ideology, as well as the exclusion of Jews from goals of intersectionality.

As Blake Flayton, a columnist at ''The Jewish Journal'', wrote in ''The New York Times'' in 2019:Flayton, Blake. “Opinion , On the Frontlines of Progressive Anti-Semitism.” The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2019. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/opinion/college-israel-anti-semitism.html.

"We often refrain from calling out anti-Semitism on our side for fear of our political bona fides being questioned or, worse, losing friends or being smeared as the things we most revile: racist, white supremacist, colonialist and so on. And that is exactly what happens when we do speak up...While white supremacists plot to murder Jews across this country, 'anti-Zionists' on college campuses seek to marginalize us as white supremacists."

See also

References

External links

Leadel.NET - Leading Jewish Inspiration.
What makes Jewish Identity on the web?

* HERMAN, Simon N
''Jewish Identity: A Social Psychological Perspective''
Transaction, 1977.
* GOLDBERG, David Theo & KRAUSZ, Michael

Temple University Press, 1993.

Half-jewish



Three Intellectuals and a People
by Laurent Cohen (an article about the Jewish Identity of Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem and Simone Weil). '' Eretz Acheret'', 5 November 2009.

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Identity politics
Religious identity
Secular Jewish culture
Jewish society
Jewish culture
Judaism-related controversies
Collective identity