The Definition of the Jew: The Dimension of Freedom – Jewish Journal
Posted By admin on June 26, 2022
A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israels most revered authors, died on Tuesday last week at the age of 85.As a member of the 1948 generation, his struggles with the transformation and redefinition of Jewishnesshas gone through several intellectual stages, and is concisely described in the essay below, whichhe contributed to the book I am Jewish, Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words ofDaniel Pearl ( Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003). His emphasis on a secular, choice-based national Judaism,in the spirit of Ruths Your people is my people, reflects the attitude of most Israelis, buthas acquired new dimension in light of the appearance of psuedo-Jewish groups such asJewish Voice for Peace and other anti-national or anti-Zionist movements that American Jewry has spawned.To be a Jew means to belong to a national group that can be left or joined.
We discover an astonishing fact in the classic Halachic definition. According to the Halachah, nothing is said about the Jews conduct, histhoughts, or basic principles of behavior. There is nothing indicating his homeland or language, or even the nature of his affiliation to a specific collective (such as maintaining solidarity with the Jewishpeople). A Jew is nothing more than a child of a Jewish mother, not even of a Jewish father. Is this biological fact really so compelling and binding? Not at all! Jews are not a race and never viewed themselves as such. They viewed themselves only as a people. According to the Halachic definition, a Jew, the son of a Jewish mother, who converts to Christianity ceases to be a Jew. That the Halachah enables someone not born of a Jewish mother to become a Jew also indicates that the Jews do not constitute a race.
To be a Jew means to belong to a national group that can be left or joined, just as any other national group is left or joined. Countless Jews have abandoned the Jewish people, and the struggle now and in all generations against assimilation indicates that it is possible to leave the Jewish people, that the individual is not compelled to retainhis membership in it.
We are now approaching the root of the matter. If we delve deep into the logic of the religious definition we see at its base another definition:
A Jew is someone who identifies as a Jew.
Someone born of a Jewish mother is no longer considered a Jew if, for example, he converts to Christianity or to Islam. It is of no importance where the Jew goes. What matters is his desire to leave. It must be understood that in the past, when everyone had a religious identification, Judaism ruled that passing to any other religion turns the Jew into a non-Jew. But today, when the individual is not obliged to maintain a religious identity, a person can leave theJewish people without having to pass through a religious corridor, even if according to the Halachah it seems that he must. The determining factor is not the technical step of formal religious conversion but his desire no longer to identify with the Jewish people. A Jewish atheist can become a non-Jewish atheist; the passage through another religion is a dispensable formality.
The same holds for joining the Jewish people. The determining factor is the act of identification, free will, and not the formal conversion, which may be altogether meaningless for the convert who, let us assume, is a confirmed atheist. These religious corridors (for entry and exit) may be good as a salve for the conscience of religious establishments, but they are irrelevant and meaningless for someone who wants to enter or leave, anddoes so as a freely chosen act.
The definition I am proposing, that a Jew is someone who identifies as a Jew, is not one I would want to be maintained always, but his definition has been the realistic, correct, and genuine definition until now. Itis the base definition underlying the Halachic definition. The Halachic definition, born in the recesses of Jewish history, was suited to a world and situation in which religion was the decisive element of a personsidentity. The secular identity taking shape before our eyes in the world and in Israel (which always existed as a potential) exposes the deep and true definition at the foundation of the Halachic definition, that whichdeclares that a Jew is someone who identifies as a Jew.
All the pseudo-Sartrean theories that would base Jewish self-identification on the existence of the Gentile (in the best circumstances) or the anti-Semite (in the worst circumstances), who forces the Jew to identify as such, are ridiculous. I dont need the Gentiles perception or the anti-Semites hostility to establish my Jewish identity. Even if there werent an anti-Semite in the world I would still want to identify as a Jew. How demeaning to present Jewish identity and belonging as a kind of trap from which there is no escape. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have left theJewish people for good, as a matter of their own choosing, and have been lost forever among other peoples. To be a Jew is a matter of choice. This element of freedom in the act of Jewish identification has of late been obscured, but it is an element of tremendous importance,for it brings with it responsibility. If I identify as a matter of free choice I assume certain responsibilities. When young people repeatedly ask, as they have been doing with increasing frequency since the Yom Kippur War: Is it possible to cut ones ties with the Jewish people? Is it possible to carry out a disengagement of forces with the Jewish people? Or, in the words of a soldier, is it possible to be just a person?to all of these questions my answer is clear: It most definitely is possible. But if a person decides to identify as a Jew he assumes responsibility for his identification, since his decision was freely made. I do not ignore the social, cultural, and family influences a decision about identification, but these are not sufficient to determine the identification. It requires willed choice. The dimension of freedom, which always formed part of Jewish identification and which has recently been obscured by notions of Jewish fate and by the experience of the Holocaust, needs to be highlighted once again. The sense of freedom immediately lightens the sense of responsibility. A man is capable of mighty actions if he has a sense of freedom, while feeling coerced only depresses and incenses him.
The element of freedom in the act of identification is also what makes possible change and reinterpretation of Judaism. I do not dismiss those who think only of continuity, who want to keep alive the ember they imagine has been passed on to them. But no less legitimate is the desire of those who want to introduce change in Judaism, with which they identify as an act of free will.
Reprinted with permission from I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl.Based on excerpts from AB Yehoshuas book, Between Right and Right.
Read the original post:
The Definition of the Jew: The Dimension of Freedom - Jewish Journal
- US President Biden In Israel: 'You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist' - JNS.org - July 14th, 2022
- Chilean Jews outraged after booze vendor uses antisemitic meme in ad - Ynetnews - July 14th, 2022
- Jewish Morocco: Sorting Wheat From Chaff - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 14th, 2022
- That Time William Shatner Took On As-a-Jew Cyberbully Anna Rajagopal - July 10th, 2022
- Better to be a Jew Than Gay in Gaza, Says Gazan LGBTQ Man - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - July 10th, 2022
- Black Jewish leader works to boost inclusiveness - The Columbian - July 10th, 2022
- ARCHIVES: In early 20th century, sports were measure of 'Jewish manhood' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - July 6th, 2022
- Rise of anti-Zionist Jews and heretical messianism - The Jewish Star - July 6th, 2022
- Joining, giving and teaching with Susan Kristol - Washington Jewish Week - July 6th, 2022
- CUNY Schools Jews on the New Race Regime - Tablet Magazine - July 6th, 2022
- Chabad Jewish Center of Troy to Open School this Fall Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News - July 6th, 2022
- How have Jewish summer camps changed throughout the years? Experts explain - Yahoo Canada Shine On - July 6th, 2022
- Boris Nayfeld, the Jewish Gangster-Survivor, and the Birth of the Russian Mob in Brooklyn - CrimeReads - July 6th, 2022
- Meet the student rabbi who will join a New Haven-area pro-Palestinian Jewish group - New Haven Register - July 6th, 2022
- Cha Cha Real Smooth is a charmer but its Jewish characters need some work - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Meet every Jewish name that has ever been inscribed on NHLs Stanley Cup - Forward - June 26th, 2022
- Mapping Project unveiled by BDS Boston is a roadmap for Jew-haters - The Boston Globe - June 19th, 2022
- A Jew and an Arab walk into Auschwitz - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- How the Jewish community found a home in Japan - The Japan Times - June 19th, 2022
- Watergate's Jewish 'thing' & Nixon's thing for the Jews - The Times of Israel - June 19th, 2022
- To save the American Jewish community, we must build personal relationships - JNS.org - June 19th, 2022
- Following War, Russian Jews Congregate in Yerevan - The Moscow Times - June 19th, 2022
- Jew or Not Jew: Bill Gates - June 4th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ayiana Love Accuses 'Israeli' Zoom of Deliberately Sabotaging ... - June 4th, 2022
- Who is a Jew? Israel's renovated Diaspora museum attempts an answer. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - June 4th, 2022
- Another Jew is murdered in France - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- The Problem With Calling a Jew a 'Convert' - Tablet Magazine - June 4th, 2022
- Vanishing Jews and replenishing our numbers - JNS.org - JNS.org - June 4th, 2022
- Building Bridges to Jewish Unity - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 2nd, 2022
- Fighting Jew-Hatred As Winners, Not Victims - Jewish Journal - May 25th, 2022
- California Jewish caucus' primary endorsements are a diverse bunch J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- How Jewish is the Queen? - Jewish News - May 25th, 2022
- How Jews push Jews out of the fight against antisemitism - Haaretz - May 25th, 2022
- Dispatches from the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice | New Voices - New Voices - May 25th, 2022
- J. ARCHIVES: Bay Area Jewish delis of yore gone but not forgotten J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - May 25th, 2022
- It's not about you: Why the Forward's article on the anti-Jewish elements of the Buffalo shooter's screed was offensive - Forward - May 25th, 2022
- Antisemitic Vandalism Is a True Threat to the Jewish Community - Algemeiner - May 25th, 2022
- WATCH: Lufthansa ADMITS They Targeted Jews Who Did Nothing Wrong - VINnews - May 8th, 2022
- Jewish gangsters once took on Nazis in the streets of NYC - New York Post - May 8th, 2022
- Spanish Jews take the spotlight in Heirs to the Land, a Netflix series set pre-Inquisition - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 8th, 2022
- The Speech President Lawrence Bacow of Harvard University Needs to Give - Algemeiner - May 8th, 2022
- The Jewish community must stand with Ukraine - The Jewish Standard - May 8th, 2022
- Israel refusing to let me immigrate, Iranian Jew says - May 4th, 2022
- Reviving the Renaissance Temples of Venices Jewish Ghetto - The New York Times - May 4th, 2022
- A Russian Jew's Insights on the War in Ukraine - jewishboston.com - May 4th, 2022
- How an observant Jew became the mother of Jesus and Christianity itself - Forward - May 4th, 2022
- The Jewish World Of Harry Potter - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - May 4th, 2022
- This Black Jewish filmmaker is the spouse of New Yorks new lieutenant governor - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - May 4th, 2022
- "God of Vengeance": A Seminal Script in the Fight to Reclaim Jewish Identity | New Voices - New Voices - May 4th, 2022
- Yemeni Academic Dr. Abd Al-Wadud Muqasher: Muslims Must Exterminate The Jews; Allah Transformed Jews Into Apes And Pigs, They Are The Filthiest Of... - May 4th, 2022
- Putin wants to de-Nazify Ukraine thats ludicrous, say the countrys Jews - POLITICO Europe - April 25th, 2022
- 'It was paradise at the time': the little-known story of the Jews of Indonesia - Haaretz - April 25th, 2022
- New exhibit opens on history of Jews and cannabis - New York Post - April 25th, 2022
- Germany's Largest Newspaper: Jew-Hating Muslims Should Be Treated like Nazis - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Remembering the only Jew on the first Freedom Ride 75 years ago - Forward - April 25th, 2022
- Report: Jewish Convert to Christianity to Lead March of the Living - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - April 25th, 2022
- Muna El-Kurd: Jews are Zionist Dogs, and 'Palestine' Should Be Ethnically Cleansed of Them - Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in... - April 25th, 2022
- Do you know this Jew? An actress known for her scandalous personal life and revolutionary activism - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Arab Incitement to Violence Against Jews, Then and Now - The Wall Street Journal - April 20th, 2022
- It's time for Houston Jewish community to challenge antisemitism in the media - Jewish Herald-Voice - April 20th, 2022
- Jesus the faithful Jew: How misreadings of the Christian Gospels miss this and fuel anti-Judaism - The Conversation - April 20th, 2022
- The usefulness of Jewish amnesia - Haaretz - April 20th, 2022
- Mini-film fest to honor Gay Jewish Icon Harvey Milk this weekend in St. Louis - - St. Louis Jewish Light - April 20th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Ariyana Love Claims She Had the UN at Her Beck ... - April 11th, 2022
- German dictionary changes definition of 'Jew' after outcry ... - April 11th, 2022
- Amy Schumer is more Jewish than she thinks - Religion News Service - April 11th, 2022
- Blacks and Jews: Fifty-Five Years After James Baldwin's Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White - Literary Hub - April 11th, 2022
- Mayim Bialik assembles a very Jewish cast in her directorial debut J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- I am a Ukrainian Jew. I have lost my mother to Russian disinformation J. - The Jewish News of Northern California - April 11th, 2022
- Jew-Hater Captain Dan Hanley Digs Himself a Deeper Hole ... - April 7th, 2022
- For a Polish Jew Like Me, the War on Ukraine Is About Our Shared Futures - Jewish Exponent - April 7th, 2022
- How a conversion split and then strengthened Kenyas Jewish community - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Ezra Furmans new song is inspired by her experience as a Jew and as a trans woman - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - April 7th, 2022
- Despite 10 years of promises, Jewish leaders have failed to make space for Jews of color - Forward - April 7th, 2022
- Jews Of Iran: A Community On Borrowed Time - I24NEWS - i24NEWS - April 7th, 2022
- Remembering the Jews of Mostyska - The Jewish Standard - April 7th, 2022
- "I'm the Jew!" - Jewish News - April 7th, 2022
- 'We are that united family': Russia's war uproots Ukrainian Jews amid false Nazi claims - USA TODAY - March 28th, 2022
- THE DEFINITIVE RAP: Jew Hatred Rising Interview With Richard Cravatts, PhD - VINnews - March 28th, 2022
- Zelensky Is a Jewish Hero. Some Jews Worry the Acclaim Won't Last. - Religion & Politics - March 26th, 2022
Comments