( Six minute read)

The diversity of beliefs and practices has led to different definitions of “Who is a Jew.”

Judaism is a religion as well as a nation and culture. Approximately 14.7 million people worldwide identify as Jewish. Today, Judaism is comprised of four major movements: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.

The above question is not just philosophical, it has political and legal ramifications.

Defining who is and is not Jewish is a contentious issue.

In Israel, questions of Jewishness have implications for immigration, conversion, marriage, divorce, and the allocation of government money.

Is it determined by heritage? By an individual’s choice of whether or not to identify as Jewish? Whether one “looks” or “feels” Jewish?

Or is the defining issue whether anti-Semites, such as the Nazis, would consider one to be Jewish?

All of these factors have been used at different times and places to determine who is and who is not Jewish.

Both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah were formed by 12 tribes of Hebrew people. While there is historical evidence of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (which formed the Kingdom of Judah and are considered the ancestors of modern Jews.

In Israel, where there is no civil marriage, marrying a Jew and being buried in a Jewish cemetery can be done only if the person in question is considered legally Jewish. In a synagogue, in order to be counted in a minyan, a prayer quorum, one must be Jewish, and so too if one wants to be called up to the Torah for an aliyah.

The Israeli Chief Rabbinate controls the marriage process for Jews in Israel, and their definition of Jewishness accords with traditional halacha. Thus, it is common to find people who are granted citizenship as Jews under the Law of Return, but are unable to legally marry as Jews (or marry Jews) in Israel.

Historically, Judaism has held that a Jew is anyone born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism in a halakhic manner (that is, according to Jewish law) Anyone with a single Jewish grandparent or a Jewish spouse is eligible to move to Israel and become a citizen under the Law of Return.

So who decides who is a Jew?

The original name for the people we now call Jews was Hebrews.

The word is apparently derived from the name Eber, one of Abraham’s ancestors. Another tradition teaches that the word comes from the word “eyver,” which means “the other side,” referring to the fact that Abraham came from the other side of the Euphrates or referring to the fact Abraham was separated from the other nations morally and spiritually.

The word “Jew” (in Hebrew, “Yehudi”) is derived from the name Judah, which was the name of one of Jacob’s twelve sons. Originally, the term Yehudi referred specifically to members of the tribe of Judah, as distinguished from the other tribes of Israel.

Another name used for the people is Children of Israel or Israelites, which refers to the fact that the people are descendants of Jacob, who was also called Israel.

In common speech, the word “Jew” is used to refer to all of the physical and spiritual descendants of Jacob/Israel, as well as to the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and their wives, and the word “Judaism” is used to refer to their beliefs. Technically, this usage is inaccurate, just as it is technically inaccurate to use the word “Indian” to refer to the original inhabitants of the Americas. However, this technically inaccurate usage is common both within the Jewish community and outside of it.

Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism:

The belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind. According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation. Most ancient societies were polytheistic—they believed in and worshiped multiple gods.

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When Jews have been at risk from the surrounding culture or from political persecution, they have turned inward and focused on the particularist elements of Jewish law and practice — the unique, defining rituals and institutions — in an effort to survive as a people.

Of course a country is entitled to defend itself when attacked.  Killing is good for preventing a future offense, but not for avenging one already done. It is a deed more of fear than of bravery.

You shall not take revenge… Leviticus 19:18

The duty to respect the commands of the government is clearly stated and emphasized in Jewish law.

After the Hamas barbaris attack in Israel today’s society vengeance is at the forefront with an an eye for an eye making the whole world blind.

If Israel wants peace and to be respected by its muslim Arabic neighbours in this time of sorrow it must give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Deeply traditional Jews and the founders of the Jewish state alike understood that the foundation of Jewish values and identity is the Bible. Yet both the Torah of Israel and rabbinic tradition had very different ideas about authentic Jewishness and how Jews should live.

The Torah demands that we keep far away from lies and falsehood (Exodus 23:7), root out corruption from among us (Deuteronomy 19:19), not defile the land by spilling innocent blood (Deuteronomy 19:10), and not allow murderers to go free (Numbers 35:31).

The Torah also teaches that all human beings are created in the Divine Image (Genesis 1:26-27). This means that every human person has intrinsic dignity and must be accorded transcendent value.

Yet, all these fundamental traditional Jewish values are in peril in Israel today – undermined by so many leaders, the government,  rabbis, and by militant hypernationalists.

These values rarely pass the lips of today’s religious Zionists.

Zionism will evolve into just another materialistic amoral, sometimes immoral, coarse struggle for a place in the sun, no different from other nationalisms/ or terrorist group with large hats, kippot, tzitzit, or payot as markers of Jewishness, or by jingoistic calls for wiping out those who are not like us.

These are not Jewish values, only superficial facades and expressions of the vulgar abuse of power that is antithetical to the spirituality of the Bible and our religious tradition.

Below prehaps a better understanding of what or who is a Jew.

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