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Judaism is the Jewish religion, but Jews, religious or not, also form an ethnic group or nation. Traditionally, Judaism has not equated the group of people believing in or practising Judaism with the group of people considered to be Jews. Just what is Judaism, and who is a Jew, is a matter of contention among different Jewish denominations, and, in Israel, among different political groupings of non-religious Jews.
Halakha (Religious) DefinitionsAccording to halakha (traditional Jewish law), it is important to ascertain whether a person is a Jew. For example, a valid Jewish marriage can only exist between two Jews; a minyan, or liturgical quorum, can only be formed with ten adult male Jews; etc. Halakha defines a Jew as someone who is either:
This standard is mandated by the Talmud, the text on which halakha is based, is held by Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism, and has been followed by mainstream Rabbanites for at least 1,800 years. As a result, mere belief in the principles of Judaism does not make one a Jew. Similarly, non-adherence by a Jew to Jewish principles of faith, or even formal conversion to another faith, does not make one lose one's Jewish status. Thus the immediate descendants of all female Jews (even apostates) are still considered to be Jews, as are those of all her female descendants. Even those descendants who are not aware they are Jews, or practice a faith other than Judaism, are technically still Jews, as long as they come from a documented unbroken female line of descent. As a corollary, the children of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother are not considered to be Jews by Orthodoxy or Conservatism, even if raised practising Judaism. All Jewish denominations welcome the return of any Jews who have left (or who have been raised in a faith other than) Judaism, and these individuals would not require a formal conversion, though they would be expected to abandon their previous beliefs and adopt Judaism. Males would be required to have either a full brit milah (ritual circumcision), or a symbolic one (if already circumcised). Those not born to a Jewish mother may become accepted as Jews by the Orthodox and Conservative movements through a formal and usually difficult process of conversion, and they and their children are then accepted as Jews as well. This is still relatively rare, and typically discouraged. Orthodox Judaism does not accept the validity of non-Orthodox conversions. Conservative Judaism may accept the validity of some Reform and Reconstructionist conversions, but only if they include (at a minimum) brit milah (for men), immersion in a mikvah, and appearance before a beit din (which is required to be composed of males, at least by the traditional branch of Conservatism). Views of Reform and Reconstructionist JudaismIn recent times, two theologically liberal (primarily American) Jewish groups—Reform Judaism (which began in mid-19th-century Germany) and Reconstructionist Judaism (which began in the 20th-century United States)—have allowed people who do not meet the classical halakhic criteria to define themselves as Jews. Their procedures for religious conversion often vary from the Orthodox ones, and they accept a person as a Jew even if their mother is non-Jewish. In the case of Reform, a person with one Jewish parent is considered to be a Jew if he or she performs "appropriate and timely public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people"; while this may in principle be taken to require a Reform upbringing, it is also stated that "for those beyond childhood claiming Jewish identity, other public acts or declarations may be added or substituted after consultation with their rabbi", and at least some -- possibly most -- Reform rabbis find any form of clear and public self-identification, religious or not, to be sufficient. This policy is commonly (though somewhat inaccurately) known as patrilineal descent; bilineal descent may be a more appropriate name. The Reconstructionist position is similar. Thus, today many Reform Jewish and secular American Jews born from originally Gentile mothers consider themselves to be Jews, although they are not considered Jewish by Orthodox Judaism or Conservative Judaism. Note that not every movement outside the United States affiliated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism (an organization to which both Reconstructionist Judaism and American Reform Judaism belong) accepts bilineal descent; notably, the Reform movement in the United Kingdom does not, while the Liberal movement in the same country does. Some Reform Jews view Judaism as a religion alone, and thus they view Jews who convert to another faith as non-Jews. For example "...anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew..." [Contemporary American Reform Responsa, #68]. This contrasts to the traditional view that Jews are a people, not merely followers of a religion, and that those who adopt the beliefs of another religion are still seen as Jews, though apostates. On the other hand, there are pre-Reform texts stating that an apostate is always an Israelite, but no longer a Jew; in order to be considered a Jew again, the apostate must repent. Conversion to JudaismRelated article: Ger tzedek ("righteous convert") The laws of conversion to Judaism are based in discussions in the Talmud. Jewish law is generally interpreted as discouraging proselytizing, and religious conversion is also discouraged. This is due to the Jewish belief that all nations have a share in the World to Come, and thus, do not need to accept Judaism and live as Jews. However, a rabbi convinced of the prospective convert's sincerity may allow him or her to follow the process of conversion, and thus appear before an established three-judge Jewish religious court known as a Beth Din (religious court) to be tested and formally accepted. There is no specific time frame for the conversion process and procedures. The convert is taught the basic laws and beliefs of Judaism, and must show an ability to keep the laws and make a commitment to keep them. See How does one convert? (http://www.shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/faq/10-07.html). A male convert is known as a Ger (or Ger tzedek, meaning "Righteous Convert") and a female is a Giyoret, from the Hebrew root word "gar" ( גר ) (to "live or sojourn with".) As discussed above, some denominations of present-day Judaism do not follow traditional Jewish laws concerning conversion. As a result, their converts may not be recognized by other Jewish denominations. Views in the State of IsraelThe situation in Israel is somewhat ambiguous. One area where the definition of Jew is relevant is in deciding who qualifies to make aliyah and acquire citizenship under the Law of Return. The requirements here differ significantly from the definition of a Jew under halakha, in including anyone with a Jewish grandparent, as well as non-Jewish spouses of Jews. However they specifically exclude Jews who have converted to a faith other than Judaism. This definition is not the same as that in traditional Jewish law; in some respects it is a deliberately wider, so as to include those non-Jewish relatives of Jews who were perceived to be Jewish, and thus faced anti-Semitism, but in other respects it is narrower, as the traditional definition includes "apostate" Jews. A second area where the definition of Jew is relevant is in marriages and divorces, which are under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior which, unlike the Law of Return, defines Jews strictly according to halakha. A third relevant area is in the registering of "nationality" on Israeli identity cards. This is also controlled by the Ministry of the Interior, which has generally only registered as a "Jew" those who meet the traditional definition. However, in a small number of cases the Supreme Court of Israel has forced the Ministry to register as Jews individuals who did not meet that definition. Some secular Israelis consider themselves to be "Israeli" enjoying a new Israeli culture and reject the title "Jew" as derived from halakha. They assert that one who is devoted to Zionism, believes and lives in the modern State of Israel, serves in the Israel Defense Force, and works for the Ingathering of the Exiles from the diaspora, is "the real Jew." According to this redefinition, even a Gentile who meets these criteria can be an "Israeli." They scorn the older generation of European Jews who they believe went "like sheep to the slaughter" to the death camps of the Holocaust and berate them for having a "galut (exile) mentality". They have a particular dislike for Haredi Jews whom they regard as old-fashioned relics of the Middle Ages, and whom they accuse of "religious coercion." This is part of an ongoing kulturkampf, or cultural divide in Israeli politics. Controversy within the Jewish CommunityThe traditional definition of a Jew is "someone born to a Jewish mother or who has converted to Judaism." The requirement for a valid conversion is that the candidate for conversion understand the obligations of being a Jew, show commitment to fulfilling these obligations, undergo brit milah (ritual circumcision) if male, perform immersion in a mikvah, and satisfy the scrutiny of a beit din, or rabbinical court. The beit din act not only as judges but as witnesses in the course of conversion, and it follows that its members must be kosher, i.e. suitable and qualified for these purposes. The controversy of "who is a Jew" concerns two disputes:
In practical terms, this means that a growing number of traditional Jewish families are increasingly concerned about the genealogy of their children's potential spouses, fearing that their grandchildren may not be Jews according to halakha. It also creates awkward situations in the course of Jewish ritual, e.g. in creating a minyan during synagogue services, etc. It has also become an important issue in Israeli politics. The Law of Return largely relies on the traditional interpretation of who is a Jew, albeit with the added stringency that the person wishing to make aliyah to Israel – that is, to immigrate under the Law of Return – should not have formally converted to another religion. (This would disqualify Dr. Albright's grandchildren). Leaders of the Conservative and Reform movements have vehemently opposed the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's claim that they alone can determine what is and what isn't a legitimate Jewish conversion. There have been several attempts to convene representatives of the three major movements to formulate a practical solution to this issue. To date, these have failed, though all parties concede the importance of the issue is greater than any sense of rivalry among them. Other Approaches to Jewish IdentityThere have been other attempts to determine Jewish identity beside the traditional approaches given above. These range from genetic population studies (see Y-chromosomal Aaron) to controversial evolutionary perspectives (see Kevin B. MacDonald, Yuri Slezkine). Anti-Semitism and the Definition of JewAlthough there are many reasons that the definition of Jewishness is important within the Jewish community, the question of "Who is a Jew?" has often been used by anti-Semites as precursor to persecution or discrimination against Jews as an ethnic group. The Nazis, for example, ruled that anyone with one Jewish grandparent was a Jew, and therefore subject to persecution. Similarly, Neo-Nazis and modern anti-Semites often attempt to trace the ancestry of individuals to determine the existence of "Jewish blood" in a family tree, rather like racist efforts to identify individuals with African blood. Sensitivity over the historical and present use of the definition of Jewishness for the purposes of ethnic persecution makes many Jews uncomfortable when discussing the topic outside of the context of religious identity. Reaction against anti-SemitismJean-Paul Sartre, not a Jew himself, suggested in Anti-Semite and Jew (1948) that Jewish identity "is neither national nor international, neither religious nor ethnic, nor political: it is a quasi-historical community." While Jews as individuals may be in danger from the anti-Semite who sees only "Jews" and not "people", Sartre argues that the Jewish experience of anti-Semitism preserves – even creates – the sense of Jewish community. In his most extreme statement of this view he wrote, "It is the anti-Semite who creates the Jew." Conversely, that sense of specific Jewish community may be threatened by the democrat who sees only "the person" and not "the Jew". Hannah Arendt repeatedly asserted a principle of claiming Jewish identity in the face of anti-Semitism. "If one is is attacked as a Jew, one must defend oneself as a Jew. Not as a German, not as a world-citizen, not as an upholder of the Rights of Man, or whatever"; "A man attacked as a Jew cannot defend himself as an Englishman or a Frenchman. The world can only conclude from this that he is simply not defending himself at all." Sociological/anthropological approachesAs with any other ethnic identity, Jewish identity is, in some degree a matter of claiming that identity and/or being perceived by others (both inside and outside the ethnic group) as belonging to that group. Returning again to the example of Madeline Albright, during her Catholic childhood her being in some sense Jewish was presumably irrelevant. It was only after she was nominated to be secretary of state that she, and the public, discovered her Jewish ancestry. Ido Abram claims that there are five aspects to contemporary Jewish identity:
The relative importance of these factors may vary enormously from place to place. For example, a typical Dutch Jew might describe his or her Jewish identity simply as "I was born Jewish," while a Jew in Romania, where levels of anti-Semitism are higher, might say, "I consider any form of denying as a proof of cowardice." [Voudouris 1999, 56] See alsoReferences
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