Jewish Identity, or the Way

Jewish identity, or the way in which Jews perceive themselves and how others view them, has not been easy to answer for most parts of Jewish history. This is mainly because Jews are not easily categorized. They are not a race as they do not share a common ancestry and people of different races have become Jews over the years. They are neither a nationality, having been dispersed throughout the world for over two thousand years. Even as a religion, Judaism is not a pure religious faith like Christianity or Islam, since it has an ethnic dimension and it does not easily assimilate outsiders. However, exploring Jewish identity is a useful exercise as it gives us a deeper perspective on the Jewish people, their history and culture. In this paper, I shall present an overview of Jewish identity and explain the ways in which Jewish identity has changed over the years as well as the forces that have been responsible for determining it.

The Concept of Identity

As life has become increasingly complex in recent decades, psychologists and social theorists have struggled to define "identity" but have found it to be as elusive a concept as the Jewish identity. It is a term that means many different things to different people. Some may think of identity in terms of socio-economic status, others would relate it to history or place of residence, occupational patterns or a number of other ways of categorization. It is a useful concept as it helps to distinguish one social group from another. Identities, however, are produced through a long drawn out historical process such as social interaction of groups, politics and economic systems. "Self-identity can be described as "the sum of characteristics which individuals believe to constitute their selves" (Meyer, 1990, p.5), while it can also be the ways in which outsiders perceive a group of people.

Jewish Identity: An Overview

God's Chosen People or Christ Killers? Coming back to the question of Jewish identity; the Jews had always regarded themselves as God's "chosen people" who were destined to play a central role in the implementation of God's purpose in creation. This was the basis of the "separate" Jewish identity to which the Jewish people have clung to through the ages. On the other hand, the negative Jewish identity of a "treacherous," "vile" and "wrong headed" people was created during the rise of Christianity. In the beginning, when Jesus started his preaching to the Jews, his teachings were not considered to be a new religion but just another version of Judaism. Later, however, Paul when transformed Christianity into a separate religion, its leaders started to claim that it had replaced Judaism. The new religion thus came into direct competition with Judaism and the Christian teachings started to blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus although he was crucified during the Roman rule; the seeds of latter day anti-Semitism were thus sown. The bias against the Jews intensified when Roman emperors embraced Christianity and declared the Jews as a "nefarious sect."

Jewish Identity in the Middle Ages: With the advent and spread of Islam in the 7th century and onwards through the Middle Ages, most Jews living under Christian governments such as the Byzantine empire came under Muslim rule. Islam, also an Abrahamic religion, did not come into direct competition with Judaism. As a result, the Jews were treated with tolerance by the Muslims, although they regarded Judaism to be a lesser religion. In most Christian dominated areas, especially Europe, the Jews continued to be viciously prosecuted. For example, although the Christian crusades were primarily directed against the Muslims, they frequently degenerated into massacres of the Jewish communities in Europe. During the First Crusade in 1096 AD, the German crusaders on their way to the East, turned on the flourishing Jewish communities on the Rhine and the Danube and utterly destroyed them. Similarly, in the Second Crusade (1147) large numbers of Jews in France were subjected to vicious massacres ("History of the Jews" n.d.).

Meanwhile, Jewish communities that had settled in various parts of Europe usually kept to themselves (or were forced to do so by others). Most Jews became merchants and money lenders since Usury was declared illegal by the Church for Christians. Although many Jews prospered in this way, their isolated existence and money-lending role added to their negative identity as greedy, parasitic people who thrived on the misfortune of others.

Jewish Identity in Modern Times: Jonathan Sacks, in an article Love, Hate and Jewish Identity appropriately sums up the dilemma of Jewish self-identity in modern times by stating: "Until the beginning of the 19th century, Jews defined themselves as the people loved by God. Since then most Jews...have defined themselves as the people hated by Gentiles." This is probably because in pre-modern times, the Jewish child felt no significant 'identity conflict' as he grew up into adulthood in isolated, self-contained Jewish communities. This state of relatively secure Jewish 'self-identity' was, however, severely disrupted by the advent of enlightenment in modern times, which forced the Jewish community to interact with the political, cultural, and economic forces outside their limited, self-contained Jewish society.

Jewish self-identity in modern times, however, is not as simplistic as stated by Sacks. According to Michael a. Meyer, apart from enlightenment (which is an ongoing process), the other two forces that have most shaped modern Jewish identity more than any others are anti-Semitism, and the sense of Jewish people hood and nationalism represented by Zionism (Meyer, 1990, p. 8) While enlightenment forced Jews to identify with a larger world beyond the boundaries of Judaism, anti-Semitism has resulted in both strengthening and weakening Jewish ties. Zionism has mostly resulted in uniting modern Jews together in support of a common goal. These three forces, i.e., enlightenment, anti-Semitism, and Zionism have, in varying combinations, compelled the modern Jews to rethink and reevaluate their Jewish identity and the role of Jewishness in their lives.

The eighteenth century European enlightenment was a universalistic force that drew Jews away from their Jewish identity. Those Jews who were influenced by the ideals of enlightenment started to think of themselves as Europeans, Germans, Communists, or socialists. Some even disavowed their Jewish identity altogether. Most 'enlightened' Jews, however, found no contradiction between their Jewishness and their 'other' identity such as being a European or a socialist and started to consider Judaism as just a personal religion.