Q&A: Judaism as a People
Judaism as a People
Question
Hello
I read your critiques of defining Judaism as a “people” (for example in the article “Who Is a Jew and What Is Judaism? An Introduction to the Topic of Conversion”). One of the claims there is that Judaism as a “people” is not well defined (familiarity with Bialik, etc., are not good criteria for “Judaism”). However, that claim is true of any people (the English, the Germans, etc.). Do you think there is no meaning at all to a collective called a “people”?
In addition, the fact that we do not have a good definition of the Jewish people, but rather “sub-definitions” (such as Jewish parents, identification with the Jewish people, knowledge of Hebrew, observance of traditions and holidays, each of which on its own does not determine whether a person belongs to the Jewish people, but taken together indicate that he does) does not mean that the concept of “the Jewish people” does not exist.
Answer
I’m not exactly claiming that. What I am claiming is that Judaism is primarily a religion and not a nationality. Alternatively, it is a nationality defined on a religious basis. The secular substitutes do not really hold water. It is true that among other peoples there can also be ambiguity, but if people want to define a Jewish people the way one defines a Belgian people, I have no objection aside from the fact that it is stealing the name (because Judaism is defined by religion). Therefore I would recommend using the term “Israeli” or some other term.
The problem is that these proposals usually try to offer an alternative essential definition based on values (instead of religious values), such as morality, humanism, army service, and good Israeli citizenship, or other such nonsense. Those really are foolishities not even worth addressing.
Discussion on Answer
The issue is discussed in the series of columns currently being published. Clearly there is the Jewish people as a nationality, but it does not have a sharp definition, just as no nationality has a sharp definition.
Don’t you think there is such a thing as the Jewish people? After all, the Jewish people is a nationality by definition.