Who is jew

The question Who is a Jew? ( Hebrew מיהו יהודי mihu jehudi ) stands for an intra- Jewish controversy that is particularly important in Israel .

The inseparability of religious and national components of Jewish existence was a principle that had not been questioned until the end of the 18th century. Then the question became increasingly virulent in the course of Jewish emancipation and secularization.

The topic has received public attention since 1962 at the latest, when several courts in Israel grappled with membership of Judaism . Affected are people who converted to Judaism , but not with an Orthodox rabbi, and people whose fathers are Jews while their mothers are, at least according to the Orthodox view, not Jewish.

Who is a Jew if there is only one Jewish parent?

In the Tanakh , the descent is patrilineal , but the rabbis introduced a matrilineal descent into the Mishnah , which has been considered halachic ever since .

While Orthodox and Conservative Judaism only accepts as Jews from birth who has a mother who was halachically Jewish at the time of the child's birth, in communities of Reform Judaism in the United States patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent are accepted, provided the child is raised Jewish.

In Karaite Judaism and in Karaite Halacha, although there are different interpretations, it does not matter whether the child's father or mother is Jewish. If one parent is Jewish according to Karaitic Halacha, regardless of whether they have converted (Karaitic or rabbinical) or born, the child enters the covenant through circumcision . The Rabbinical Halacha has no authority among Karaite Jews.

Conversions Debate

The conversion debate is about the question in which cases a Giur should be considered valid. The representatives of the orthodox position took the position that only an admission into Judaism that had been confirmed by an orthodox rabbinical court is valid , while the liberal position considers this to be valid even if an admission by a liberal rabbi is valid.

In 1958 a controversy in the Israeli cabinet under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion came to a head as to how this term should be used: in the sense of an identification with the State of Israel or in the sense of halachic law. Ben-Gurion had reports obtained from Jewish scholars, the majority of whom were in favor of following the halachic definition.

In 2008, the debate in Israel flared up with particular sharpness after the Rabbinical Supreme Court upheld the decision of the local Rabbinical Court of Ashdod to invalidate the conversion of a woman carried out by settler rabbi Chaim Druckman . He was accused of having deliberately and knowingly broken the halacha and forged documents. But that meant that thousands more conversions were in question. The background to this dispute is a political conflict between nationally religious-minded and ultra-orthodox non-Zionist rabbis. As a result of these difficulties, the discussion about a world-wide recognized rabbinical body was taken up.

The debate about living conditions is about the question of how actions - such as converting to another religion - or living conditions - such as ignorance of Jewish ancestry - affect a person's identity as a Jew.

The Kaniuk case and its consequences

Yoram Kaniuk was the first Israeli to enforce in court that his passport reads “without religion” instead of “Jewish” under the heading of religion. Hundreds of other Israelis have since followed him in this, and even a new verb was formed in Hebrew for this process: lehitkaniuk . Quote from Yoram Kaniuk (interview, October 2011): “For many years I have opposed the idea that one can only become part of Israeli society through religion. I am of the opinion that state and religion should be separated from each other. It's a very problematic thing in Judaism because if you wanted to be Jewish you had to be religious for hundreds of years. And I defend myself against it. I love Israel and also the Jewish culture and I want to be part of it. I just don't want to be forced to do it in a very specific way. "

literature

J. David Bleich: The Conversion Crisis: A Halakhic Analysis . In: Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought 11/4 (1971), pp. 16–42.
J. David Bleich: Contemporary Halakhic Problems . Volume 1. Ktav, New York 1977, chap. 13 and Volume 2, 1983, pp. 103-107.
Simon N. Herman: Jewish identity. A social psychological perspective. 2nd Edition. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick 1989, ISBN 0-88738-256-8 .
Avraham Korman: Yehudi: Mi-hu U'ma-hu . 3. Edition. Safriyati, Tel Aviv 1979.
B. Litvin, SB Hoenig (Ed.): Jewish Identity. Modern Responses and Opinions on the Registration of Children of Mixed Marriages. Feldheim, New York 1965.
Pnina Lahav: Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century. University of California Press, Berkeley 1997, chap. 12: Who is a Jew? With more literature
Salcia Landmann: Who are the Jews? History and anthropology of a people . Dtv, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-00913-6 .
Aaron Lubling: Conversion in Jewish Law . In: Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society . Volume 11, 1985.
Raphael Posner: Jew. Halakhic definition , article in: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition, Macmillan 2007, Volume 11, pp. 254f.
Avner H. Shaki: Mihu Yehudi Bedinei Medinat Yisrael . 2 volumes, Publications of the Faculty of Law, University of Tel Aviv 16 / Machon Lecheker Hamishpachah, Tel Aviv 1977.
Michael Stanislawski: A Jewish Monk? A Legal and Ideological Analysis of the Origins of the 'Who Is a Jew' Controversy in Israel. In: Eli Lederhendler, Jack Wertheimer (Ed.): Text and Context: Essays in Modern Jewish History and Historiography in Honor of Ismar Schorsch. Jewish Theological Seminary, New York 2005, pp. 548-577.

Web links

Joseph Mélèze Modrzejewski: “Mutilare Genitalia” - Roman law and Jewish matrilineality . juedisches-recht.de
Who is a Jew? on Judaism 101 (English)
Rebecca Weinert: Who is a Jew? jewishvirtuallibrary.org (English)

Individual evidence

^ S. Zalman Abramov: Perpetual dilemma. Jewish religion in the Jewish State . Associated University Press, Cranbury NJ 1976, chap. 9: Who is a Jew, p. 270 ff: “One of the many contoversities periodically agitating public opinion in Israel, none is more acute and more fraught with emotion than the legal, religious, and historical definition of a Jew. No other issue has engendered so much dissension and public debate as this one. "
^ S. Zalman Abramov: Perpetual dilemma. Jewish religion in the Jewish State . Associated University Press, Cranbury NJ 1976, chap. 9: Who is a Jew, p. 271
↑ Lawrence H. Schiffman: Who Was a Jew? - Rabbinic and Halakhic perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism . Ktav Publishing House, 1985, Foreword, p. IX
↑ See e.g. B. Ephraim Tabory: The Israel Reform and Conservative Movements and the Market for Liberal Judaism . In: Uzi Rebhun, Chaim Isaac Waxman (ed.): Jews in Israel . Contemporary Social and Cultural Pattern. 2nd Edition. University Press of New England, Brandeis / Lebanon NH 2004, pp. 285-314, here pp. 296 ff.
↑ See the documentation in Sidney B. Hoenig, Baruch Litvin (ed.): Jewish Identity: Modern Responsa and Opinions on The Registration of Children of Mixed Marriages - David Ben-Gurion's Query to Leaders of World Jewry . Philip Feldheim, New York 1965.

[1] S. Zalman Abramov: Perpetual dilemma. Jewish religion in the Jewish State . Associated University Press, Cranbury NJ 1976, chap. 9: Who is a Jew, p. 270 ff: “One of the many contoversities periodically agitating public opinion in Israel, none is more acute and more fraught with emotion than the legal, religious, and historical definition of a Jew. No other issue has engendered so much dissension and public debate as this one. "

[2] S. Zalman Abramov: Perpetual dilemma. Jewish religion in the Jewish State . Associated University Press, Cranbury NJ 1976, chap. 9: Who is a Jew, p. 271

[3] Lawrence H. Schiffman: Who Was a Jew? - Rabbinic and Halakhic perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism . Ktav Publishing House, 1985, Foreword, p. IX

[4] See e.g. B. Ephraim Tabory: The Israel Reform and Conservative Movements and the Market for Liberal Judaism . In: Uzi Rebhun, Chaim Isaac Waxman (ed.): Jews in Israel . Contemporary Social and Cultural Pattern. 2nd Edition. University Press of New England, Brandeis / Lebanon NH 2004, pp. 285-314, here pp. 296 ff.

[5] See the documentation in Sidney B. Hoenig, Baruch Litvin (ed.): Jewish Identity: Modern Responsa and Opinions on The Registration of Children of Mixed Marriages - David Ben-Gurion's Query to Leaders of World Jewry . Philip Feldheim, New York 1965.