Jewish ethnicity

Jews trace a four-thousand-year history to a common origin in the biblical characters of Abraham and Sarah of Ur (Southeastern Iraq). Eventually, twelve tribes settled in the land of Israel. Modern Jews are descendants of the southern tribe, Judah, which maintained Jerusalem, the temple, and the kingship of David. From their beginnings, Jews were a diverse group. They have often existed as “alien residents” among other peoples, which has made them targets for exploitation, attack, and expulsion. Their ancient language Hebrew became their common religious language. Monotheism, circumcision of males, and concern about social justice all have long traditions in Jewish history. Because of their preservation of the Torah (Bible) and their study and practice of its ethical and religious laws, Jews have been called “the people of the Book.” Because both Christianity and Islam credit Judaism for their beginnings, early Jewish history continues to be known throughout the world.

The question of who is a Jew is variously answered. The traditional halakah (rabbinic religious rulings) upheld by Orthodox and Conservative branches is that a Jew is born from a Jewish mother (matrilineal descent) or has undergone a conversion that includes religious instruction, immersion in water, and, for men, circumcision. The liberal Reform movement ruled that patrilineal descent would be accepted if the child was raised as a Jew. These differences in rulings create problems for marriages between Jews. The bar/bat mitzvah remains an affirming religious ceremony for adolescents in all branches of Judaism.

Jews in the United States are drawn from many countries to which their ancestors were dispersed after the Romans’ conquest of Israel in 70 CE. The main subgroups are Ashkenazic (Polish, German, Russian, and other Eastern European), Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese), and Mizrahi (Middle Eastern). There are other smaller groups as well, such as the North African Maghrebi Jews and the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. Secular Jews maintain social, cultural, and national connections but not religious involvement with the Jewish community.

Like Irish, Greek, and Italian immigrants, Jews in the United States were initially defined as “nonwhite.” However, by the 1950s, Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom were more or less visually indistinguishable from other European Americans, were viewed as having religious rather than racial or ethnic differences from the European American mainstream. Indeed, much of what distinguishes Jews has religious roots: the weekly Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday; holidays such as Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, and Pesach (Passover); keeping kosher (observing dietary restrictions which forbid the eating of pork and certain kinds of seafood, among other things); males wearing kippah (skullcaps); and foods such as matzo and halvah. However, many secular Jews continue to observe these traditions, in much the same way that a nonreligious American with a Christian background might continue to celebrate Christmas and Easter. Like some other religious minority groups, Jews maintain religious day schools and advanced religious educational institutions. Jews by Choice (1991), by Brenda Forster and Joseph Tabachnik, contains detailed descriptions of the religious and ethnic aspects of Jewish culture.

Jewish Americans share concerns that include maintaining Jewish identity, opposing anti-Semitism, maintaining “separation of church and state,” remembering the Holocaust, and handling intermarriage or outmarriage. According to 2020 data from the Pew Research Center, fourty-two percent of American Jews marry non-Jews, with the number rising to sixty-eight percent when Orthodox Jews are excluded. More traditional Jewish people tend to consider this a problem, which may lead to a dilution of Jewish identity, though other communities are more accepting of the practice. In addition, the percentage of self-identified Jewish Americans who consider themselves culturally rather than religiously Jewish is growing. In 2020, twenty-seven percent of American Jews did not consider themselves religious; this group included just sixteen percent of Jewish Americans born before 1955, but fourty percent of those born after 1990. This has also caused concern in more religious Jewish communities, but rather than being a specifically Jewish problem, it reflects an overall trend; the percentages of nonreligious persons by age group in the general population are about the same. Despite these changes, ninety-four percent of Jewish Americans say that they are proud to be Jewish, and sixty-seven percent claim a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people.

Bibliography

"Jewish Americans in 2020." Pew Research Center, 11 May 2021, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.

Klein, Misha. "Teaching about Jewishness in the Heartland." Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 32, no. 4, 2014, pp. 89-104, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hus&AN=97205122&site=eds-live. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.

"Marriage, Families, and Children." Pew Research Center, 11 May 2021, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/marriage-families-and-children/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.

Pew Research Center. A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Findings from a Pew Research Center Survey of US Jews. Pew Research Center, 2013.

Raphael, Marc Lee, editor. The Columbia History of Jews and Judaism in America. Columbia University Press, 2008.

Schwarz, Sidney. Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future. Jewish Lights, 2013.

Zola, Gary Phillip, and Marc Dollinger, editors. American Jewish History: A Primary Source Reader. Brandeis University Press, 2014.