Who Is a Jew?
Level: Basic |
The original name for the people we now call
Jews was Hebrews. The word "Hebrew" (in Hebrew,
"Ivri") is first used in the Torah to describe
Abraham (Gen. 14:13). The word is apparently
derived from the name Eber, one of Abraham's ancestors. Another tradition
teaches that the word comes from the word "eyver," which means "the other
side," referring to the fact that Abraham came from the other side of the
Euphrates, or referring to the fact Abraham was separated from the other
nations morally and spiritually.
Another name used for the people is Children of
Israel or Israelites, which refers to the fact
that the people are descendants of Jacob, who
was also called Israel.
The word "Jew" (in Hebrew, "Yehudi") is derived from the name Judah, which
was the name of one of Jacob's twelve sons. Judah was the ancestor of one
of the tribes of Israel, which was named after him. Likewise, the word Judaism
literally means "Judah-ism," that is, the religion of the Yehudim. Other
sources, however, say that the word "Yehudim" means "People of
G-d," because the first three letters of "Yehudah"
are the same as the first three letters of G-d's four-letter
name.
Originally, the term Yehudi referred specifically to members of the tribe
of Judah, as distinguished from the other tribes of Israel. However, after
the death of King Solomon, the nation of Israel
was split into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel
(I Kings 12; II Chronicles 10). After that time, the word Yehudi could properly
be used to describe anyone from the kingdom of Judah, which included the
tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, as well as scattered settlements from
other tribes. The most obvious biblical example of this usage is in Esther
2:5, where Mordecai is referred to as both a Yehudi and a member of the tribe
of Benjamin.
In the 6th century B.C.E., the kingdom of Israel
was conquered by Assyria and the ten tribes were exiled from the land (II
Kings 17), leaving only the tribes in the kingdom of Judah remaining to carry
on Abraham's heritage. These people of the kingdom of Judah were generally
known to themselves and to other nations as Yehudim (Jews), and that name
continues to be used today.
In common speech, the word "Jew" is used to refer to all of the physical
and spiritual descendants of Jacob/Israel, as well as to the patriarchs Abraham
and Isaac and their wives, and the word "Judaism"
is used to refer to their beliefs. Technically, this usage is inaccurate,
just as it is technically inaccurate to use the word "Indian" to refer to
the original inhabitants of the Americas. However, this technically inaccurate
usage is common both within the Jewish community and outside of it, and is
therefore used throughout this site.
A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through
the formal process of conversion to Judaism.
It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you
believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone
the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that
Orthodox Jews believe and observes every
law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most
liberal movements of Judaism, and a person
born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish
religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this
sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and
being Jewish is like a citizenship. See
What Is Judaism?
This has been established since the earliest days of Judaism. In the Torah,
you will see many references to "the strangers who dwell among you" or "righteous
proselytes" or "righteous strangers." These are various classifications of
non-Jews who lived among Jews, adopting some or all of the beliefs and practices
of Judaism without going through the formal process of conversion and becoming
Jews. Once a person has converted to Judaism,
he is not referred to by any special term; he is as much a Jew as anyone
born Jewish.
Although all Jewish movements agree on these
general principles, there are occasional disputes as to whether a particular
individual is a Jew. Most of these disputes fall into one of two categories.
First, traditional Judaism maintains that a person is a Jew if his mother
is a Jew, regardless of who his father is. The liberal movements, on the
other hand, consider a person to be Jewish if either of his parents was Jewish
and the child was raised Jewish. Thus, if the child of a Jewish father and
a Christian mother is raised Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the
Reform movement, but not according to the Orthodox movement. On the other
hand, if the child of a Christian father and a Jewish mother is not raised
Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the Orthodox movement, but not according
to the Reform movement! The matter becomes even more complicated, because
the status of that children's children also comes into question.
Second, the more traditional movements do not always acknowledge the validity
of conversions by the more liberal movements. The more modern movements do
not always follow the procedures required by the more traditional movements,
thereby invalidating the conversion. In addition, Orthodoxy does not accept
the authority of Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist
rabbis to perform conversions, and the Conservative
movement has debated whether to accept the authority of Reform rabbis.
Many people have asked me why traditional Judaism uses matrilineal descent
to determine Jewish status, when in all other things (tribal affiliation,
priestly status, royalty, etc.) we use patrilineal descent.
The Torah does not specifically state anywhere
that matrilineal descent should be used; however, there are several passages
in the Torah where it is understood that the child of a Jewish woman and
a non-Jewish man is a Jew, and several other passages where it is understood
that the child of a non-Jewish woman and a Jewish man is not a Jew.
In Deuteronomy 7:1-5, in expressing the prohibition against
intermarriage, G-d says "he [i.e., the
non-Jewish male spouse] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they
will worship the gods of others." No such concern is expressed about the
child of a non-Jewish female spouse. From this, we infer that the child of
a non-Jewish male spouse is Jewish (and can therefore be turned away from
Judaism), but the child of a non-Jewish female spouse is not Jewish (and
therefore turning away is not an issue).
Leviticus 24:10 speaks of the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man
as being "among the community of Israel" (i.e., a Jew).
On the other hand, in Ezra 10:2-3, the Jews returning to Israel vowed to
put aside their non-Jewish wives and the children born to those wives. They
could not have put aside those children if those children were Jews.
Several people have written to me asking about King David: was he a Jew,
given that one of his female ancestors, Ruth, was not a Jew? This conclusion
is based on two faulty premises: first of all, Ruth was a Jew, and even if
she wasn't, that would not affect David's status as a Jew. Ruth converted
to Judaism before marrying Boaz and bearing Obed. See Ruth 1:16, where Ruth
states her intention to convert. After Ruth converted, she was a Jew, and
all of her children born after the conversion were Jewish as well. But even
if Ruth were not Jewish at the time Obed was born, that would not affect
King David's status as a Jew, because Ruth is an ancestor of David's father,
not of David's mother, and David's Jewish status is determined by his mother.
In March, 1997, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim issued a statement declaring that
the Conservative and
Reform movements are "outside of
Torah and outside of Judaism." This statement
has been widely publicized and widely misunderstood, and requires some response.
Three points are particularly worth discussing: 1) the statement does not
challenge the Jewish status of Reform and Conservative Jews; 2) the statement
is not an official statement of a unified
Orthodox opinion; 3) the statement was made
with the intent of bringing people into Jewish belief, not with the intention
of excluding them from it.
First of all, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim statement does not say
that Reform and Conservative Jews are not Jews. Their statement does not
say anything about Jewish status. As the discussion above explains, status
as a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe; it is simply a matter of
who your parents are. Reform and Conservative Jews are Jews,
as they have always been, and even the Agudath Ha-Rabonim would agree on
that point. The debate over who is a Jew is the same as it has always been,
the same as was discussed above: the Reform recognition of patrilineal decent,
and the validity of conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis.
Second, the Agudath Ha-Rabonim is not the official voice of mainstream Orthodoxy.
Their statement does not represent the unified position of Orthodox Judaism
in America. In fact, the Rabbinical Council of America (the rabbinic arm
of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America) immediately issued
a strong statement disassociating themselves from this "hurtful public
pronouncement [which] flies in the face of Jewish
peoplehood."
Finally, before one can denounce a statement like this, one should make an
attempt to understand the position of those making the statement. According
to Orthodoxy, the Torah is the heart of Judaism. All of what our people are
revolves around the unchanging, eternal, mutually binding covenant between
G-d and our people. That is the definition of
Jewish belief, according to Orthodoxy, and all Jewish belief is measured
against that yardstick. You may dispute the validity of the yardstick, but
you can't deny that Conservative and Reform Judaism don't measure up on that
yardstick. Reform Judaism does not believe in the binding nature of Torah,
and Conservative Judaism believes that the law can change.
The Agudath Ha-Rabonim did not intend to cut Reform and Conservative Jews
off from their heritage. On the contrary, their intention was to bring Reform
and Conservative Jews back to what they consider to be the only true Judaism.
The statement encouraged Reform and Conservative Jews to leave their synagogues
and "join an Orthodox synagogue, where they will be warmly welcomed." I believe
the Agudath Ha-Rabonim were sincere, albeit misguided, in this intention.
I have known several Orthodox and Chasidic Jews who believed that if there
were no Reform or Conservative synagogues, everyone would be Orthodox. However,
my own personal experience with Reform and Conservative Jews indicates that
if there were no such movements, most of these people would be lost to Judaism
entirely, and that would be a great tragedy.
The opinion of mainstream Orthodoxy seems to be that it is better for a Jew
to be Reform or Conservative than not to be Jewish at all. While we would
certainly prefer that all of our people acknowledged the obligation to observe
the unchanging law (just as Conservative Jews would prefer that all of our
people acknowledged the right to change the law, and Reform Jews would prefer
that all of our people acknowledged the right to pick and choose what to
observe), we recognize that, as Rabbi Kook said, "That which unites us is
far greater than that which divides us."
Would you like to know if your favorite TV star is Jewish? Do you want a
list of famous Jewish scientists? Is Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal Jewish
or isn't he? Then check out the website
Jewhoo! Formatted to
look like a parody of Yahoo, this site is not a search engine at all, but
is a reference source listing famous Jews in every field of endeavor. It's
a fun site, and worth checking out even if you don't want answers to specific
questions.
UPDATE (1/15/2006): The Jewhoo website is in transition, and is currently
a blog called Red Sea Pedestrians.
© Copyright 5756-5761 (1995-2001), Tracey
R Rich
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