Religion or Ethnicity?: Jewish Identities in Evolution

edited by Zvi Gitelman
contributions by Julian Levinson, Charles Liebman, Yaacov Yadgar, Mark Tessler, Shachar Pinsker, Calvin Goldscheider, Adam Chalom, Zvi Gitelman, Yaron Eliav, Gabriele Boccaccini, Miriam Bodian, Steven Nadler, David Fishman, Scott Spector and Todd Endelman

Rutgers University Press, 2009
Cloth: 978-0-8135-4450-2 | Paper: 978-0-8135-4451-9
Library of Congress Classification DS143.R374 2009
Dewey Decimal Classification 305.8924

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Can someone be considered Jewish if he or she never goes to synagogue, doesn't keep kosher, and for whom the only connection to his or her ancestral past is attending an annual Passover seder?

In Religion or Ethnicity? fifteen leading scholars trace the evolution of Jewish identity. The book examines Judaism from the Greco-Roman age, through medieval times, modern western and eastern Europe, to today. Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race. Religion or Ethnicity? questions what it means to be Jewish. The contributors show how the Jewish people have evolved over time in different ethnic, religious, and political movements. In his closing essay, Gitelman questions the viability of secular Jewishness outside Israel but suggests that the continued interest in exploring the relationship between Judaism's secular and religious forms will keep the heritage alive for generations to come.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Zvi Gitelman is a professor of comparative politics and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. He is also a research scientist at the University's Center for Russian and East European Studies. He has written or edited numerous works on the Jews of eastern Europe, including Jewish Life After the USSR and A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union.

REVIEWS

"This extensive array of intensive historical and contemporary analyses of Judaism and Jewishness is a valuable contribution to the understanding of what it means to be Jewish."

— Chaim I. Waxman, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Rutgers University

"We live in an age not only of fluid identities and shifting identities, but of contested identities as well. This extraordinary collection of eminently readable scholarly articles spans centuries of Jewish life, and offers an insightful, stimulating and provocative look at Jews' ongoing struggle with defining their identities. Religion? Ethnicity? Both? Neither? The answers, as we learn, depend not only on whom you ask—but when and where—and who does the asking."

— Steven M. Cohen, author of The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America

"A provocative and important volume. The book elucidate[s] how the definition of the Jewish people has evolved over the centuries and has changed at different times in different places. Highly recommended."

— Choice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Introduction: Jewish Religion, Jewish Ethnicity: The Evolution of Jewish Identities
Zvi Gitelman
Part I. Varieties of Historical Jewish Identities
1. Secularism, Hellenism, and Rabbis in Antiquity
Yaron Eliav
2. What is a Judaism? Perspectives from Second Temple Jewish Studies
Gabriele Boccaccini
3. Crypto-Jewish Criticism of Tradition and its Echoes in Jewish Communities
Miriam Bodian
4. Spinoza and the Origins of Jewish Secularism
Steven Nadler
Part II. Challenges of Secular Jewishness in Modern Times
5. Yiddish Schools in America and the Problem of Secular Jewish Identity
David Fishman
6. Beyond Assimilation: Introducing Subjectivity to German-Jewish History
Scott Spector
7. Jewish Self-Identification and West European Categories of Belonging from the Enlightenment to World War II
Todd Endelman
8. People of the (Secular) Book: Literary Anthologies and the Making of Jewish Identity in Postwar America
Julian Levinson
Part III. Secular Jewishness in Israel Today
9. Secular-Jewish Identity and the Condition of Secular Judaism in Israel
Charles Liebman and Yaacov Yadgar
10. Beyond the Religious-Secular Dichotomy: Masortim in Israel
Charles Liebman and Yaacov Yadgar
11. What Kind of Jewish State Do Israelis Want?: The Nature and Determinants of Israeli Attitudes toward Secularism and Some Comparisons with Arab Attitudes toward the Relationship between Religion and Politics
Mark Tessler
12. The Construction of 'Secular' and 'Religious' in Modern Hebrew Literature
Shachar Pinsker
Part IV. Secular Jewishness in the Diaspora Today
13. Jewish Identity and Secularism in Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine
Zvi Gitelman
14. Judaism, Community, and Jewish Culture in American Life: Continuities and Transformations
Calvin Goldscheider
15. Beyond Apikorsut: A Judaism for Secular Jews
Adam Chalom
Conclusion: The Nature and Viability of Jewish Religious and Secular Identities
Zvi Gitelman
Contributors
Index

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