What is jewish

The Italian Jewish community considers itself to be the oldest in Europe. Jewish customs, foods, liturgical music and cultures reflect the many places Jews have lived and made homes, whether in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa or more recently the Americas and Australasia. Unique communities can also be found in China, India, Ethiopia, Uganda and many other places around the world. While diversity from place to place was common throughout Jewish history, in the 19th century Europe also saw the emergence of various Jewish denominations or movements, which responded to the Enlightenment and the emancipation offered by the Napoleonic Empire.

Reform Judaism emerged as an attempt to allow Jews to live both as modern citizens and as modern Jews, Chasidism emerged as an offering of spirituality that was accessible to all, while Orthodoxy attempted to protect Jewish life and resist a slide into assimilation.

Movements have continued to emerge since the 19th century, particularly in the Ashkenazi world. No matter how assimilated Jews became across Europe, with the emergence of Nazism anyone with detectable Jewish ancestry was treated the same, and fell victim to Nazi persecution.

Background to the Holocaust. David Ben-Gurion , one of the leading promoters of a Jewish nation state, was given the title of prime minister. This event was considered a success for the Jewish people who had tirelessly petitioned for an independent state in their homeland. However, tensions between Jews and Arabs living in Palestine escalated in the years since Israel became a state and are still ongoing today.

Orthodox Judaism : Orthodox Jews are typically known for their strict observance of traditional Jewish law and rituals.

Orthodox Judaism is a diverse sect that includes several subgroups, including Hasidic Jews. This form started in the 18th century in Eastern Europe and holds different values than traditional or ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Hasidic Jews emphasize a mystical experience with God that involves direct communion through prayer and worship.

Chabad is a well-known Orthodox Jewish, Hasidic movement. Reform Judaism : Reform Judaism is considered a liberal category of the religion that values ethical traditions over strict observance of Jewish laws. Followers promote progressive ideas and adaptation. Typically, conservative Jews honor the traditions of Judaism while allowing for some modernization.

Reconstructionist Judaism : Reconstructionism dates back to when Mordecai Kaplan founded the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. Humanistic Jews celebrate Jewish history and culture without an emphasis on God.

Passover : This holiday lasts seven or eight days and celebrates Jewish freedom from slavery in Egypt. Rosh Hashanah : Jews celebrate the birth of the universe and humanity during this holiday, which is also known as the Jewish New Year. The High Holy Days are considered a time of repentance for Jewish people. Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees defeated the Syrian-Greeks over 2, years ago.

Purim : This is a joyous holiday that celebrates a time when the Jewish people in Persia were saved from extermination. Religion: Judaism.

Ancient Jewish Texts. My Jewish Learning. The Jewish Denominations. What is Judaism? Jewish Sacred Texts. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The characteristics and attitudes of people of Jewish background and people with a Jewish affinity are discussed separately in Chapter 7 of this report. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics. As DNA sequencing becomes more sophisticated, the ability to identify genetic differences between human populations has improved.

Geneticists can now locate variations in the DNA so acutely as to differentiate populations living on opposite sides of a mountain range. In recent years, a number of high-profile commentators have appropriated these scientific insights to push the idea that genetics can determine who we are socially, none more controversially than the former New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade.

In his book, A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, Wade argues that genetic differences in human populations manifest in predictable social differences between those groups.

His book was strongly denounced by almost all prominent researchers in the field as a shoddy incarnation of race science, but the idea that our DNA can determine who we are in some social sense has also crept into more mainstream perspectives. And indeed, this already appears to be happening.

In the United States, white nationalists have channeled the ideals of racial purity into an obsession with the reliability of direct-to-consumer DNA testing. Most concerning is how the conflation of genetics and racial identity is being mobilized politically.

In February, the New York Times reported that authorities in China are using DNA testing to determine whether someone is of Uighur ancestry, as part of a broader campaign of surveillance and oppression against the Muslim minority. While DNA testing in Israel is still limited to proving Jewishness in relation to religious life, it comes at a time when the intersections of ethnic, political and religious identity are becoming increasingly blurry.

Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian who has written extensively on the politics of Jewish population genetics, worries that if DNA testing is normalized by the Rabbinate, it could be used to confirm citizenship in the future.

For Sand, there is a particularly dark irony that this type of genetic discrimination is being weaponized by Jews against other Jews. But for Seth Farber, the problem with a DNA test for Jewishness runs deeper than politics; it contravenes what he believes to be the essence of Jewish identity. The central principle is that when it comes to Jewish identity, the most important determinants are social — trust, kinship, commitment — not biological. That would be an unwarranted and radical reinterpretation of Jewish law.

As I was reporting this story, it often struck me as oxymoronic that an institution like the Rabbinate would embrace new technology to uphold an ancient identity.