How come Judaism is referred to more like a race than a religion?

Answer 1

And an actual Jew shows up to answer a question like this. Imagine that. :)

Judaism is not precisely a religion in the sense that Christianity is, defined in terms of some set body of doctrine. Ask three Jews about their views regarding Theology, and you'll likely get at least four answers. In Christendom, this kind of "dissension" would be most likely viewed as being a crisis, with conferences being held in the hopes of addressing it. Presented with such concerns, however, the Jews hearing it will probably smile, shrug, and tell you that this is precisely how things should be, and if such dissension shall bring about the fall of Judaism, it certainly has been taking its sweet time about doing so during the last few thousand years.

Judaism, itself, is more a way of life than it is a conventional religion, a culture with spiritual roots that grow out of a particular tradition of honoring G-d, one that makes no claim of being the only legitimate way of doing so. G-d made one covenant with Israel at Sinai; if He wishes to make a different covenant with a different people, who are we to tell Him that He may not?

In response to what I've seen, not to be mean about it, but I'd have to say that you're all wrong and some of you have badly missed the point. Judaism, as a tradition, has not held that one has to be born Jewish to legitimately be Jewish for thousands of years. Ruth, who was born a Pagan and a Moabite, went on to become one of the matriarchs, and one of the ancestors of Kings David and Solomon. So much for the Psalms if Judaism were so race conscious in ages past.

Conversion to Judaism is nothing novel, there being a well-established body of Jewish Law connected to it, and indeed, prior to the Diaspora, Jewish missionary activity took place in the (then predominantly Pagan) Roman Empire. This tapered off greatly with the beginning of the Diaspora, perhaps because few would be eager to become part of a scattered and already persecuted people. During the centuries that followed, such conversion efforts became even scarcer, first in Christendom and later in Islam, because in both locations "apostasy" was punishable by death. Martyrdom is a honor that few men seek.

"More like a race than a religion"? Perhaps, and one would need only look into the very non-Tunisian face of an old Tunisian Jewish girlfriend of mine, to see why, and European Jewry is no less distinct. It is almost a cliche to note that one can see a very non-nordic tendency toward smallness of stature among the Deutsche Yehudim, found for one of the more usual reasons one finds dwarfism in a mammalian species - restriction of range. The Ashkenazim found themselves locked in ghettoes, forbidden to live elsewhere or emerge outside of their gated communities for 2,000 years, caged like they were animals on display. A smaller man, needing less food, is less likely to starve to death when food becomes scarce in the constricted area in which he is penned up.

Little mixing could occur under such apartheid like circumstances, so that while to say "this person is Jewish" would not necessarily imply that his ancestry came from Ancient Judaea, the correlation was fairly strong, as subsequent DNA studies have confirmed. There just wasn't a whole lot of converting TO Judaism going on, anywhere, nor was there likely to be much in later years, coming very close to the present.

As recently as the late 1980s, while circumstances had certainly become far less harsh, in the Midwestern US one could still hear people comfortable, not in their denial of the Holocaust, but in their defense of it, based on the usual vague theories about Jewish conspiracies to control the world's ... fill in the blank. I usually rolled my eyes and tuned out when those discussions got going, probably prudent because some variant on the phrase "halfbreed freak" was going to be uttered by somebody who should have known better. But synagogues would get bombed, and law enforcement would refuse to investigate, citing the Reconstruction era codephrase of "outside agitators". After some of that outside agitation in the not so distant past turned the local Shul into a pile of scorched toothpicks, a few of us decided that finishing our theses on a long distance basis was a healthier choice.

Any reform that we've seen in the last few years is but a few years old, and if somebody says "this is all in the past", we've heard that line before, and been disappointed in our faith in those who uttered it, not so very far in the past. There are very few people who will take a look at experiences like these and go "I want me some of this". Most will take one look, move on and who can blame them?



But even if one could snap one's fingers and get certain people to just stop acting like psychotic ninnies, conversion would remain rare. In part, because the Jewish community isn't going to work that hard to encourage it. Christians and Muslims are generally considered to be worshippers of the same deity, and as such, certainly not in need of any sort of "salvation". But, aside from that, like I said, Judaism is not so much a religion as it is a culture or, perhaps, a civilization or a tribe. A tribe with its own civilization? Conversion to Judaism is not like going from being a Catholic to being an Episcopalian. You aren't just switching hymn books. There is A LOT to learn for any would-be convert, and one has to be really called and really driven to go to that much trouble, even under ideal circumstances, which we don't have.

Converts are a small minority in Judaism and are likely to remain one for the forseeable future, so yes, there is a certain racial identity that is likely to stay strongly associated with this tribal cult. At least one of you thought that greater tolerance would bring assimilation. Martin Luther had much the same thought, as did many who followed him - don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

As much difficulty as some will have in understanding and accepting this, we don't want to become you, to become white bread, assimilated Americans, and while your methods in encouraging this result may be friendlier than those of some of the earlier civilizations that, like you, imagined we would blend in and vanish, the assumption that we would want to remains as narrowmindedly provincial, ethnocentric, and downright arrogant. It is the same arrogance with which another "modern civilization" greeted Mom's ancestors, with their "backward ways", just as assured of its inevitable cultural triumph. That "modern" culture, of course, was Egypt. Followed by Babylon, followed by Rome, ... with any number of other civilizations that like these, are dust now, long outlived by those they imagined they would absorb.

America is well on its way to joining them, and pardon me if I'm blunt, but mainstream American culture is way far down the list of the world's most enticing creations. If we were not going to adopt Egyptian culture, we certainly aren't going to adopt Anglo-American culture. American Jews have loved America, not because they've been desperately eager to spend their sabbaths listening to a DJ spinning techno or hearing somebody blast out a recording of "Are you ready for the sex, girls" while chowing down on their meatloaf, but because aside from an unruly and underrestrained minority, most Americans couldn't care less whether or not we chose to do any of that, and have been glad to let us be ourselves.

Lose that, and you lose us. There is, guys, a happy medium between the extremes of separatism and assimilationism. We like having non-Jewish friends, we like being connected to the world around us, but just as a family has its quiet time at home that the rest of the world isn't invited in on, there is that part of our lives and our world that is ours, that is not to be shared or remade to the liking of others, not even to that of our friends in the larger world beyond. If they really are our friends, they shouldn't have any trouble accepting that.

Answer 2

In one way, Jews are a race. Jews started as Semites, a group of Middle Eastern people closely related to the Arabs. But, after the exile from Judea by the Romans, Jews fled to the Diaspora. Here, Jews mingled and inter-married the local populations, which is why Eastern European Jews have white, not Middle Eastern, skin tones. Thus, Jews actually kind of are a race. But, as Jews were isolated and put in the ghetto in many parts of Europe for many centuries, they became treated as an entirely different people, hence the Jews becoming a race in many people's minds.

Answer 3

In the world 20-50 years ago (the period of which most of the people who list it as a race were raised), most of the Jews to which people were exposed were Ashkenazi, roughly meaning that they were European. Because European Jews didn't typically mingle their genes with non-Jews, but they did intermix with other European Jewish centers, it was more convenient to think of "Jew" as a separate category than fitting within the geographic definitions used at that time.

It is more likely now that a person will meet a Sefardic Jew or even one from a smaller subgroup (e.g. Ethiopian or Indian Jews), and with the increase in interfaith marriages there are more variations being included in the "racial stock." I would expect in another 20-30 years that Jews will no longer be referred to much as a race, except by those who look to categorize them for their own purposes.

Answer 4

It would be more correct to say a nationality rather than a race as race has no clear definition and is used mostly as a perjorative.

The reason is that according to Jewish Law, one's religious identity is an inherited trait. Therefore, one is a Jew by birth if his mother is likewise a Jew. Of course, a non-jew can become a jew if they so desire.

There are elements of both nationality and religion and the two aspects are interdependent.

Answer 5

Jews are a race and a religion. Those people that descended from the Israelites are both Jewish by race and Jewish by religion. Although being Jewish maybe more of a "handed down"
race then an actual race.

Answer 6

This is an excellent question. It's both in a way. There are two distinct groups of Jews...the sephardics, and the ashkenazie .....the Sephardics are semitic Jewis....mediteranean...mid-east....The others are European.

Since we were historically only allowed to live together in small communities/ghettoes, we developed our own distinct cultural/national identity.

It is more a nationality...culture to be specific...then a race....

But Judaism is more then just a religion.

Answer 7

because thats what Jews teach, but if Judaism is a race then so is Buddhism. Judaism is a religion, the race of the people is Israeli or Hebrew, but saying a religon is a race is just crazy talk

Answer 8

Judaism is a religion

Jewish is a race/nationality.

Answer 9

because for a long time you were not considered truly Jewish unless you were born in a Jewish family. unlike many other religions, conversion was not really accepted.

historically Jews consider themselves a people and have created a culture that affects their everyday lives, making it more than a shared religion.

Answer 10

I'm not aware that it is. Judaism is a religion.

Answer 11

People who define it as a race usually have an agenda... Racist are, well, wanting a reason to hate, while Baptists want to be able to call their "jews for jesus" Jewish, even though religiously they are Christians..