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Who is a Jew?

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Who is a Jew? (Hebrew: Mihu Yehudi?) can be complicated question because Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary depending on whether a religious, sociological, or national approach to identity is used. "Who is a Jew?" has also become a well-known rhetorical question within Judaism, referring to a cultural and religious battle to define who can be described as truly being a "Jew" and what is the "correct" definition for being "Jewish"?


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Recent controversy

The phrase Mihu Yehudi ("Who is a Jew?") came into widespread use when several high profile legal cases in Israel grappled with this subject after the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. These legal cases arose because being Jewish is not simply a matter of subscribing to a set of religious beliefs. For a variety of reasons related to Jewish history, Judaism's religious laws, and cultural norms, being a Jew involves being part of a people, or a nation in modern terminology. For most, it is a product of their birth when they are born into a Jewish family; for others, becoming Jewish involves applying and formally "converting" to Judaism. Identifying who is a Jew matters for religious reasons as well, a valid Jewish marriage can only exist between two Jews; a traditional minyan (a quorum required for communal prayers), can only be formed with ten adult male Jews.

According to Jewish tradition, the first converts were Abraham and Sarah, and Biblical and post-Biblical literature provide numerous examples of individuals, such as Ruth, and Onkelos, who joined the Jewish people for a variety of reasons.

All Jewish denominations and groups within the Jewish community agree that it is possible for virtually anyone to become a Jew, but since the mid 20th century there has been increasing disagreement about what precisely determines whether someone is born Jewish, or what it would take to join the Jewish people.

Religious definitions

For the most part, a Jewish identity has been seen as a religious question stemming specifically from the Torah and the Hebrew Bible as a whole. As a result, religious authorities, such as scholarly rabbis, have traditionally taken the responsibility of determining the criteria for being a Jew.

Traditional (Halakhic) perspective

According to the traditional view, and strictly maintained by all branches of Orthodox Judaism today, only Halakha (Judaism's "Jewish law") can define who is or is not a Jew when a question of Jewish identity, lineage, or parentage arises about any person seeking to define themselves or claim that they are a "Jew" or "Jewish".

Therefore, Halakha defines a "Jew" as someone, male or female, who is:

either

(1) The child of a Jewish mother, known in English as "matrilineal descent". (For the derivation of this tradition see: [1] and [2]),

or

(2) A person who converts, meaning, formally converted to Judaism under the auspices of a legally (i.e. Halakhically) constituted and recognized Beth Din ("Court [of Jewish-Torah Law]") -- consisting of three learned rabbis acting as Dayanim ("Judges") who then issue a Shtar geirut ("Certificate [of] Conversion") -- in accordance with the criteria of Halakha only.

This standard is mandated by the Talmud and the Shulkhan Arukh (the definitive "Code of Jewish Law), the text on which Halakha is based, is held by Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism, and has been followed by those Jews who follow the Rabbinical tradition ("Rabbinites") 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 an 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.

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 in order to become "true converts" (Geirei tzedek in Hebrew), and they are then accepted as Jews by the movement doing the conversion.

Conversion is still relatively rare, and typically discouraged. Orthodox Judaism does not accept the validity of non-Orthodox conversions. Conservative Judaism may (rarely) 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).

Perspective of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

In recent times, two theologically liberal (primarily American) Jewish groups—Reform Judaism (which began in mid-19th-century Germany and broke off into the American version, Radical Reform Judaism which is more liberal) 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. 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.

Jews who have practiced another faith

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). In some communities, Orthodox and otherwise, people who return to Judaism may be required or encouraged to participate in a ceremony similar to conversion, including tevilah (immersion in a ritual bath) and appearance before a beit din.

Conversion to Judaism

Related article: Ger tzedek ("Righteous Convert" or literally: "Convert [of] righteousness")

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?. 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 are frequently not recognized by other Jewish denominations.

Views in the State of Israel

The 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.

A minority of 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 community

The 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:

  • The Reform movement has changed some of the traditional requirements for a Jewish identity in ways that are unacceptable to more traditional movements in two ways:
    • Children born of just one Jewish parent - regardless of whether the father or mother is Jewish - can claim a Jewish identity. A child of only one Jewish parent who does not claim this identity has, in the eyes of the Reform movement, forfeited his/her Jewish identity. By contrast, the traditional view is that any child born to a Jewish mother is Jewish, whether or not he/she is raised Jewish, or even whether the mother considers herself Jewish. As a result, the grandchildren of Madeline Albright (who was raised Catholic and unaware of her Jewish heritage) will all be Jews according to halakha (traditional Jewish law), since their mother's mother's mother's mother's mother was a Jew (Dr. Albright has only daughters).
    • The requirement of brit milah has been relaxed, as has the requirement of ritual immersion. (Conservatism also permits conversion without circumcision in the case of hemophiliacs.)
  • The Orthodox movement has determined that non-Orthodox rabbis are not qualified to form a beit din, and are generally restrictive in their willingness to accept the ruling of a beit din with whom they are not familiar. This has led to the fact that non-Orthodox conversions are generally not accepted in Orthodox communities.

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 identity

There 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 Jew

Although 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 either a Jew or a Mischling, 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 some Jews uncomfortable when discussing the topic outside of the context of religious identity.

Reaction against anti-Semitism

Jean-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 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 approaches

As 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:

  1. Religion, culture, and tradition.
  2. The tie with Israel and Zionism.
  3. Dealings with anti-Semitism, including issues of persecution and survival.
  4. Personal history and life-experience.
  5. Relationship with non-Jewish culture and people. [3], [Voudouris 1999, 16]

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]

Non-religious ethnic definition

In some areas of the world, and among some non-religious Jews, the term "Jew" is used to describe a Jewish ethnic group without any kind of consideration of Jewish faith and law. For example, in the Russia (and the former Soviet Union), "Jew" is commonly used to describe someone of the Jewish ethnic group, and "Religious Jew" is commonly used to describe someone of the Jewish faith. The ethnic group term "Jew" is used completely outside the realm of Judaism. Therefore, there are no laws governing matrilineal descent, and it is possible for to be considered ½ or ¼ Jewish, depending on ancestry. For example, it is not uncommon for a non-religious person from Russia who has one Jewish parent to refer to themselves as being a "Half Russian/Half Jewish", whether that parent is the mother or father. In Soviet times, "Jewish" was a nationality, much like "Ukrainian" or "Lithuanian"; a person whose parents were from two different nationalities had the option of choosing either of the two (but usually not both) at age 16.

See also

Reference

  • Voudouris, Monica Săvulescu and Camil Fuchs, Jewish identity after the Second World War. Editura Hasefer, Bucharest, 1999, ISBN 9739235735.
Last updated: 06-02-2005 17:25:06
Last updated: 08-16-2005 14:46:44