Jewish peoplehood (
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: עמיות יהודית, ''Amiut Yehudit'') is the conception of the awareness of the underlying unity that makes an individual a part of the
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
people
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
.
The concept of peoplehood has a double meaning. The first is descriptive, as a concept factually describing the existence of the
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
as a people - i.e a national ethnoreligious indigenous group, similar to the Tibetans, the Hindus, the Mayans etc. The second is normative, as a value that describes the feeling of belonging and commitment to the Jewish people.
The concept of Jewish peoplehood is a paradigm shift for some in Jewish life. Insisting that the mainstream of Jewish life is focused on Jewish nationalism (
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
), they argue that Jewish life should instead focus on Jewish peoplehood, however the majority of Jews see peoplehood as encompassing both Jews living inside Israel and outside in diaspora.
The concept of peoplehood, or "Klal Yisrael" has permeated Jewish life for millennia, and to focus on it does not constitute a shift from the focus on Jewish nationhood. Jews have been extremely effective in sustaining a sense of joint responsibility towards their people and its members for over 2,000 years, since their displacement by the Romans, subsequent enslavement, dispersal as a refugee community throughout the world, and subsequent return to their homeland in 1948.
The concepts of Jews as a nation and as a peoplehood are not necessarily at odds with one another. The very concept of defining Jews as a people or civilization is historically accurate, and suggests a wide variety of values within the context of Judaism also.
[Emanuel S. Goldsmith, "Salvational Zionism and Religious Naturalism in the Thought of Mordecai M. Kaplan"]
Jewish writings
The concept of a distinctive Jewish people has been part of Jewish culture since the development of the Hebrew Bible. Throughout the
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
, Prophets and Writings, Jews are variously referred to as a congregation, a nation, children of Israel or even a kingdom, (Eda, Uma, Am, Bnei Israel, Mamlakha respectively) all implying a connection among people.
"And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you, and to your seed after you".
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
17:7/8
"There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people".
Esther
Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...
3:8
"In each generation every individual should feel as though he or she had actually been redeemed from
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
". The
Haggadah
The Haggadah ( he, הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the mitzvah to each J ...
"Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh" – "All Israelites are sureties for one another".
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
Shevuot 39a
Jewish nationhood
''Goy'' גוי, in Biblical Hebrew, literally means "nation", and historically Jews are most commonly described with variations of this concept. In , God promises
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
that his descendants will form a ("great nation"). In , the Jews are referred to as a ''goy kadosh'' (גוי קדוש), a "holy nation". One of the more poetic descriptions of the Jewish people in the Hebrew Bible, and popular among Jewish scholarship, is , or "a unique nation upon the earth!" ( and ). The "nation" concept refers not just to a territorial or political entity, i.e. the
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Ce ...
, but in the ancient sense meaning a group of people with a common history, a common destiny, and a sense of connection to one another, an ''
ethnos''. The nationhood concept adhered to the biblical and religious identification as a
chosen people
Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of a "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term ( he, עם ס ...
, a holy nation set apart from the other nations in obedience to the
One God
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
. This conception of Jewishness helped to preserve the Jewish people during the
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
, when Jews were "scattered among the nations". It was similarly invoked by the Zionist movement, which sought to
Negate the Diaspora (shlilat ha'galut) by
Gathering the exiled of Israel (Kibbutz Galuyot) back to their homeland, where they would achieve national self-determination.
Jewish peoplehood
Some modern Jewish leaders in the diaspora, particularly
American Jews
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...
, found the traditional conception of Jews as a "nation among the nations" problematic, posing a challenge to integration and inviting charges of
dual loyalty
In politics, dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially conflict with each other, leading to a conflict of interest.
Inherently controversial
While nearly all examples of alleged "dual loyalty" are considered highly cont ...
. The first significant use of the "peoplehood" concept was by
Mordecai Kaplan
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (born Mottel Kaplan; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist ...
, co-founder of the
Reconstructionist School of Judaism, who was searching for a term that would enable him to describe the complex nature of Jewish belonging. Once the State of Israel was founded, he rejected the concept of nationhood, as it had become too closely identified with statehood, and replaced it with the peoplehood concept. In his work ''
Judaism as a Civilization'', Kaplan sought to define the Jewish people and religion in socio-cultural terms as well as religious ones.
Kaplan's definition of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
as "an evolving religious civilization" illumines his understanding of the centrality of Peoplehood in the Jewish religion. Describing Judaism as a religious civilization emphasizes the idea that Jewish people have sought "to make
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...
collective experience yield meaning for the enrichment of the life of the individual Jew and for the spiritual greatness of the Jewish people." The definition as a civilization allows Judaism to accept the principles of
unity in diversity
Unity in diversity is used as an expression of harmony and unity between dissimilar individuals or groups. It is a concept of "unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation" that shifts focus from unity based on a mere tolerance ...
and continuity in change. It is a reminder that Judaism consists of much that cannot be put into the category of religion in modern times, "paradoxical as it may sound, the spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people demands that religion cease to be its sole preoccupation." In the sense that existence precedes essence and life takes precedence over thought, Judaism exists for the sake of the Jewish people rather than the Jewish people existing for the sake of Judaism.
Kaplan's purpose in developing the ''Jewish Peoplehood'' idea was to create a vision broad enough to include everyone who identified as a Jew regardless of individual approaches to
that identity.
In modern Jewish life
Since 2000, major Jewish organizations have embraced the peoplehood concept and intellectual interest in the topic has increased. Major organizations such as the Jewish Federations of North America, the JFNA New York Federation, the
Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...
, the Israel Ministry for Education, the Diaspora Museum, the Avi Chai Foundation, the
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
and many other smaller organizations are either introducing the peoplehood concept as an organizing principle in their organizations or initiating high-profile programming with an explicit focus on Jewish Peoplehood.
Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky ( he, נתן שרנסקי; russian: Ната́н Щара́нский; uk, Натан Щаранський, born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky on 20 January 1948); uk, Анатолій Борисович Щаранський, ...
, the
Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...
’s chairman, declared that the agency’s traditional Zionist mission had outlived its usefulness. In his new capacity, he has made Israel education and promoting Jewish Peoplehood a priority, particularly among the young.
[Embattled Jewish Agency To Promote Identity Over Aliyah, Gal Beckerman]
Key characteristics
Alongside the use of the peoplehood concept by Jewish organizations, there is a parallel growth of intellectual interest in the topic since 2000. The intellectual discussion asks: What is "Jewish Peoplehood"? What are the key characteristics that distinguish Jewish Peoplehood from other concepts?
Areas of agreement
The areas of agreement among Jewish intellectuals writing about the concept of Jewish Peoplehood point to three principles:
The three unifying principles of the ''Jewish Peoplehood'' theory:
#A multidimensional experience of Jewish belonging – The concept of Jewish Peoplehood assumes an understanding of Jewish belonging that is multidimensional.
#Rejection of any dominant ideology, which over emphasizes one dimension of Jewishness - Strong ideological frameworks that overemphasize one dimension of the larger Jewish experience are not an acceptable starting point for understanding how individuals connect to the Jewish People.
#Focus on the nature of the connection between Jews and not on the Jewish Identity - Those concerned with the Jewish Peoplehood concept do not focus on the identity of individuals, but rather on the nature of connections between Jews. The concern is with common elements and frameworks that enable Jews to connect with one another both emotionally and socially.
In combination, these three principles imbue the Peoplehood concept with coherence and offer an added value to organizations that wish to create programs “that build Jewish Peoplehood” in a sustainable and measurable way.
Different perspectives
There are several variants of the communitarian position among intellectuals writing about Jewish Peoplehood. The common denominator is the desire to find common ground upon which connections between Jews are built.
The four distinct positions regarding Jewish Peoplehood:
#Peoplehood as a common destiny.
#Peoplehood as a shared mission with an emphasis on
Tikkun Olam
''Tikkun olam'' ( he, תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם, , repair of the world) is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world.
In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to leg ...
.
#Peoplehood as a shared kinship and mutual responsibility.
#Peoplehood as an obligation.
[A Framework for Strategic Thinking about Jewish Peoplehood, p.13-14]
For some critics, Jewish Peoplehood is still an amorphous and abstract concept that presents an optional ideological approach towards the Jewish collective. Others wonder if it is too weak a foundation on which to base Jewish collective identity, especially since the vision of Peoplehood is not predicated on having any kind of religious or spiritual identity.
See also
*
Who is a Jew?
"Who is a Jew?" ( he, מיהו יהודי ) is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, ...
*
Jewish identity
Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of Identity (social science), perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jews, Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as ...
Footnotes
{{Reflist, 2
References
''A Framework for the Strategic Thinking about Jewish Peoplehood,'' Kopelowitz, E. and Engelberg A., Platforma, Jerusalem, 2007Peoplehood Now, sponsored by the NADAV Foundation, editors: Shlomi Ravid, Shelley Kedar, Research: Ari Engelberg, Elana Sztokman, Varda Rafaeli''The Peoplehood Papers I,'' edited by Corbin K., Fram Plotkin A., Levine E., Most G., United Jewish Communities, New York, 2007''The Peoplehood Papers II,'' edited by Serkin D,. Kol Dor, The International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv, 2008''The Peoplehood Papers III,'' edited by Ravid S., Serkin T., United Jewish Communities, The International School for Jewish Peoplehood Studies at Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv, 2008''The Peoplehood Papers IV,'' edited by Ravid S., United Jewish Communities, Kol Dor, The Jewish Peoplehood HUB, Tel Aviv, 2009'' Jewish Peoplehood in an Age of Globalization'' Dr Ami Bouganim, The Research and Development Unit of the Department of Jewish-Zionist, Education, 2007
YNet News
Peoplehood in the BiblePeoplehood in Rabbinic TextsEmbattled Jewish Agency To Promote Identity Over Aliyah, Gal Beckerman, The Jewish Daily Forward, March 2010
Further reading
* ''The Case for Jewish Peoplehood: Can We Be One?, by
Erica Brown
Erica Brown (born September 7, 1966) is an American writer and educator who lectures widely on subjects of Jewish interest and is scholar-in-residence for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and a consultant to other Jewish organization ...
, Misha Galperin, and
Joseph Telushkin
Joseph Telushkin (born 1948) is an American rabbi, lecturer, and bestselling author of more than 15 books, including volumes about Jewish ethics, Jewish literacy, as well as the book '' Rebbe'', a ''New York Times'' bestseller released in Ju ...
, 2009
* ''Jewish Peoplehood: Change and Challenge'', (Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History) by Ezra Kopelowitz and Menachem Reviv, 2008
* ''The Future of Jewish Peoplehood,'' by
Arthur Waskow
Arthur Ocean Waskow (born Arthur I. Waskow; 1933) is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.
Education and early career
Waskow was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. He receiv ...
(1977)
External links
Center for Jewish Peoplehood EducationPolicy publications on Jewish peoplehood at the Berman Jewish Policy Archive NADAV Foundation
Dynamic Judaism: the essential writings by Mordechai M. Kaplan, Edited and with Introductions by Emanuel S. Goldsmith and Mel ScultJewish Peoplehood IndexBe'chol Lashon – In Every ToungPeoplehood Research BlogJewish Peoplehood HUBEnvisioning Jewish PeoplehoodThe Koret International School for Jewish Peoplehood at Beit Hatfutsot
Jewish society
Jews