Jewish identity

Part of a series on
Jews and Judaism
Etymology Who is a Jew? Jewish peoplehood Jewish identity
Religion God in Judaism Names Principles of faith Mitzvot 613 Halakha Shabbat Holidays Prayer Tzedakah Land of Israel Brit Bar and Bat Mitzvah Marriage Bereavement Philosophy Ethics Kabbalah Customs Synagogue Rabbi
Texts Tanakh Torah Nevi'im Ketuvim Targum Talmud Mishnah Gemara Rabbinic Midrash Tosefta Mishneh Torah Tur Shulchan Aruch Zohar
Communities Ashkenazi Sephardi Italkim Mizrahi Bukharan Kurdish Mountain Ethiopian Romaniotes Related groups Lemba Khazars Karaim Krymchaks Samaritans Crypto-Jews Mosaic Arabs
Population Land of Israel Israeli Jews Palestinian Jews Europe Russia Poland Estonia Lithuania Germany Netherlands Austria Hungary Romania United Kingdom France Portugal Spain Italy Greece Bulgaria Asia Indonesia Iraq Yemen Syria Lebanon Iran Turkey Georgia India Pakistan China Africa Morocco Algeria Tunisia Libya Egypt Ethiopia South Africa Zimbabwe North America United States Canada Latin America and Caribbean Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Mexico Jamaica Puerto Rico Suriname Uruguay Venezuela Oceania Australia Fiji New Zealand Palau Judaism by country Lists of Jews Historical population comparisons
Denominations Alternative Classical Reform Conservative Humanistic Haymanot Karaite Liberal Orthodox Progressive Reconstructionist Reform Renewal Traditional
Culture Minyan Wedding Niddah Pidyon haben Music Cuisine Hiloni Shidduch Zeved habat Conversion to Judaism
Languages Hebrew Biblical Yiddish Juhuri Judæo-Iranian Ladino Judeo-Aramaic Judeo-Arabic
History Timeline Leaders Ancient Kingdom of Judah Temple in Jerusalem Babylonian captivity Yehud Medinata Jerusalem in Judaism timeline Hasmonean dynasty Sanhedrin Schisms Pharisees Jewish–Roman wars Christianity and Judaism Islamic–Jewish relations Diaspora Middle Ages Golden Age Sabbateans Hasidism Haskalah Emancipation The Holocaust Aliyah Israel history Arab–Israeli conflict Land of Israel Baal teshuva Persecution Antisemitism history
Politics Politics of Israel Zionism Labor Revisionist Religious Green General World Agudath Israel Bundism Feminism Jewish left / right
Category Portal WikiProject

Ashkenazi Jews praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur. Traditional elements shown include tallit, the torah, kippot and the segregation of men and women in the synagogue. (1878 painting by Maurice Gottlieb)

Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under the broader definition, the Jewish identity does not depend on whether or not a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an external set of religious, or legal, or sociological norms. Jewish identity does not need to imply religious orthodoxy. Accordingly, Jewish identity can be cultural in nature. Jewish identity can involve ties to the Jewish community. Traditional Judaism bases Jewishness on matriarchal descent. According to Jewish law (halacha), all those born of a Jewish mother are Jewish, regardless of personal beliefs or level of observance of Jewish law. Jews who are atheists may have Jewish identity. While the absolute majority of people with this identity are of Jewish ethnicity, people born from a mixed Jewish and non-Jewish background may have Jewish identity. (See also "half-Jewish".)

Categories

Jewish identity can be separated into three separate, independent parts:

1. Ethnic/Ancestral Judaism (those of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, or Mizrahi Jewish ancestry, or more specifically, those Jews who by all secular accounts are the descendants of the those who were depopulated by the Romans in c.100 CE, resulting in the Jewish Diaspora)
2. Religious Judaism (those Jews who follow the tenets of the Jewish religion)
3. Cultural Judaism (those Jews who celebrate Jewish holidays and were "raised in a Jewish home").

A Cultural/Ancestral Concept

Jewish identity can be cultural, religious, and/or through ancestry. There are religious, cultural and ancestral components to Jewish identity due to its fundamental non-proselytizing nature, as opposed to Christian or Muslim identity which are both "universal" religions in that they ascribe to the notion that their faith is meant to be spread throughout all of humanity, regardless of nationality, (and still are, though to a far lessor extent than throughout its history in the case of Christianity). However, Jewish identity is firmly intertwined with Jewish ancestry dating back to the historical Kingdom of Israel, which was largely depopulated by the Roman Empire c. first century AD, leading to what is known as today as the Jewish Diaspora.

Antisemitism and Jewish identity

According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, modern Jewish communities and the modern Jewish identity are influenced by antisemitism.

See also

• Jewish population
• Jewish peoplehood
• Who is a Jew?
• Basic Laws of Israel
• Halakha
• Knesset

• Law of Return
• Matrilineality
• Patrilineality
• Politics of Israel
• Ashkenazi Jews
• Jewish diaspora

• Sephardi Jews
• Mizrahi Jews
• Karaite Jews
• Jewish cuisine
• Secular Jewish culture
• Cultural diversity

• Identity politics
• Self-concept
• Social identity

External links

• Leadel.NET - Leading Jewish Inspiration. What makes Jewish Identity on the web?
• HERMAN, Simon N. Jewish Identity: A Social Psychological Perspective. Transaction, 1977.
• GOLDBERG, David Theo & KRAUSZ, Michael. Jewish Identity. Temple University Press, 1993.
• Half-jewish
• Three Intellectuals and a People, by Laurent Cohen (an article about the Jewish Identity of Hannah Arendt, Gershom Scholem and Simone Weil). Eretz Acheret, 05/11/2009.