There are different views as to the
origin of the word "Jew". The most common
view is that the Middle English word
"Jew" is from the Old French giu,
earlier juieu, from the Latin
iudeus from the Greek. The Latin
simply means Judaean, from the
land of
Judaea. There is some scholarly
controversy over whether Judaea
is a patronymic or if it was a purely
geographic term of uncertain Semitic
origin. If indeed it is patronymic, it
corresponds to the
Hebrew y'hudi (or yehudi)
"Judah"
in English, a member of the
Twelve Tribes of the
Children of Israel — i.e.,
Jacob's sons. According to
Genesis, Judah was the fourth son of
the patriarch
Jacob, from whom the
tribe descended. The Old English
equivalent was Iudeas, meaning
"Judean".
Classical
Rabbinic literature has a tradition
which traces the word "Jew" to Genesis
29:35, which says that Judah's mother —
the matriarch
Leah — named him Judah
because she wanted to praise God for
giving birth to so many sons: "She said,
'This time let me praise (odeh)
God,' and named the child Judah (Yehudah)."
Thereafter in the Biblical narrative,
Judah vouchsafes the Jewish monarchy, and
the Israelite kings
David and
Solomon derive their lineage from
Judah. Indeed, there is the tradition
that the "Judaeans" (Jews) are named for
him, their ancient tribal ancestor.
In
Hebrew, the name "Judah" contains the
four letters of the
Tetragrammaton — the special, holy,
and ineffable name of the Jewish God. The
very holiness of the name of Judah
attests to its importance as an alternate
name for "Israelites"
that it ultimately replaces.
A much less common view is that the
word "Jew" is from "Jewry", from the
Greek evrei meaning "Hebrew",
which some speculate comes from the
ancient Egyptian hiberu or
habiru, which meant "stranger".
Under the latter view,
Abraham,
Israel and other patriarchs are
regarded as Jews while under the former
only the descendants (ethnically or
physically) of the Judaeans from the
Kingdom of Judah would be Jews,
strictly speaking. In the Hebrew language
the word "Hebrew", ivri, means
"one who 'passes' over" as did the
patriarch
Abraham who "passed over" from being
a
gentile to becoming a "convert" to
the faith of
Monotheism.
Ancient terminology
In some places in the
Talmud the word Israel(ite)
refers to somebody who is Jewish but does
not necessarily practice Judaism as a
religion: "An Israel(ite) even though he
has sinned is still an Israel(ite)." More
commonly the Talmud uses the term "Bnei
Yisrael" , the Children of Israel
(another name for Jacob)" to refer to
Jews. This Talmudic distinction is
comparable to the contemporary
distinction between "religious Jews" and
"secular Jews." In modern English, the
term "Israelite" is never used to refer
to contemporary Jews, but can be used to
refer to Jews of the Biblical era.
Usage by non-Jews
The term "Israelite", has also been
appropriated by various non-Jewish
groups, for example the
Rastafarians, who claim descent from
the tribes of Israel.
Who is a Jew?
Jewish law
Halakha, Jewish tradition and
law, defines a Jew as someone who is
either
This standard is mandated by the
Talmud, the record of oral law that
explicates the
Torah, the text on which Jewish law
is based. According to the Talmud, this
standard has been followed since the
giving of the Torah at
Mount Sinai some 3,300 years ago.
Non-Orthodox Jewish historians claim that
this standard has been followed only for
the last 2,000 years.
Traditional Jewish views
According to traditional Jewish law,
mere belief in the principles of
Judaism does not make one a Jew.
Similarly, non-adherence by one who is
Jewish to
Jewish principles of faith does not
make one lose one's Jewish status.
Jewishness is determined by the
mother (matrilineal descent); thus
the immediate male descendants of a
female Jewish apostate are still
considered Jewish; all her female
descendants, but only in a documented
unbroken female line of descent, and
their immediate
male children are also considered
Jewish. While most of these descendants
probably would not be practicing Judaism,
or in many cases aware of their
Jewishness, their status as Jews
technically still would be in effect. As
such, all
Jewish denominations welcome the
return of any of these people back to the
Jewish community; such people would be
considered Jews in good standing without
the need for a formal conversion.
Generally, people who have been raised
as non-Jews (gentiles)
would be expected to make some sort of
public sign that they are returning to
Judaism, for instance engaging in a
course in Jewish
Torah education, joining a
synagogue, observing the Jewish
Shabbat (Sabbath), the
Jewish Festivals, keeping
kosher, commencing "Family Purity" or
niddah, having an adult "Bar
Mitzvah" ceremony, and anything else
they should try to observe. If not
circumcised, males are required to have a
brit milah (ritual
circumcision).
Note that "circumcision" in the Jewish
sense is not the medical procedure
performed by a doctor but is a religious
procedure performed by a
mohel (also pronounced as
mo'el).
Jewish peoplehood is not inherited
from one's Jewish
father alone, even if he were not an
apostate from Judaism. This traditional
rabbinic view is still held by many in
the return-to-tradition wing of
Reform Judaism, and by all of
Orthodox Judaism and
Conservative Judaism
View of the State of Israel
The situation in
Israel is somewhat ambiguous. One
area where the definition of Jew is
relevant is in deciding who qualifies to
make
aliyah under the
Law of Return. The requirements here
differ significantly from the definition
of a Jew under
halakha, as the law attempts to
include all those who might be subject to
anti-Semitic persecution, including
anyone with a Jewish grandparent, as well
as non-Jewish spouses of Jews. However it
specifically excludes Jews who have
converted to a faith other than
Judaism.
A second area where the definition of
Jew is relevant is in marriages and
divorces, which are under the
jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry.
The Interior Ministry, unlike the Law of
Return, defines Jews strictly according
to halakha.
A third relevant area is in the
registering of "nationality" on Israeli
identity cards. This is also controlled
by the Interior Ministry, which has
generally only registered as a "Jew"
those who meet the halakhic definition.
However, in a small number of cases the
Israeli Supreme Court has forced the
Ministry to register individuals who did
not meet that definition. See also
Jew in Israel and Israeli Law
Views of Reform and Reconstructionist
Judaism
In the last half of the
20th century, two
theologically
liberal (primarily American) Jewish
groups —
Reform Judaism and
Reconstructionist Judaism — have
allowed people who do not meet these
criteria to define themselves as Jews.
They no longer require converts to follow
traditional Jewish procedures of
conversion, and they accept a person as a
Jew even if their mother is non-Jewish;
in the case of Reform, so long as the
father is a Jew and the person performs
"appropriate and timely public and formal
acts of identification with the Jewish
faith and people". This is commonly
(though mistakenly) known as
patrilineal descent.
This has thus resulted in a serious
schism among the Jewish people; today
many
Reform Jewish and secular
Jewish-Americans born from originally
gentile mothers, (who were not born
Jewish themselves), consider themselves
to be Jews, although they are not
considered Jewish by
Orthodox Jews,
Conservative Jews, and even by many
Reform Jews outside of the United States.
Some Reform Jews view Judaism as a
religion alone, and thus they view
Jews who convert to another faith as
non-Jews. This contrasts to the
traditional rabbinic view of Judaism as a
peoplehood, and not merely a religion. In
the traditional view, those who leave
Judaism by converting to another religion
are still seen as Jewish people; however,
they are seen as
apostates who by their actions have
chosen to remove themselves from the
Judaic religion.
Maintaining Jewishness versus
assimilation
Judaism guides its adherents in both
practice and belief, and has been called
not only a religion, but also a "way of
life", which has made the job of
differentiating between Jews and Judaism
almost impossible.
In many times and places, such as the
Hellenization during ancient
Greece, the
Enlightenment in
Europe, and in the modern USA and
Israel, cultural phenomena have developed
that are in some sense characteristically
Jewish without being at all specifically
religious. Some factors in this come from
within Judaism, others from the
interaction of Jews with others around
them.
In most of Europe up until the late
18th century, and in some places to
an even later date, Jews were prohibited
by governments under the sway of the
Roman Catholic Church, from owning
land. Conversely, most forms of
Christianity and Islam traditionally did
not allow their members to lend money at
interest. Also, the strong Jewish
tradition of religious scholarship often
left Jews well prepared for secular
scholarship, although in some times and
places this was countered by Jews being
banned from studying at universities, or
admitted only in limited numbers.
Consequently, even into recent times Jews
were little represented in the
land-holding classes, but far better
represented in the learned professions
and in finance and commerce.
In some places where there have been
relatively high concentrations of Jews,
distinct secular Jewish subcultures have
arisen. For example, ethnic Jews formed
an enormous proportion of the literary
and artistic life of
Vienna at the end of the
19th century, or of
New York City fifty years later, and
for the most part these were not at all
particularly religious people.
