THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF JEWISH IDENTITY

From the very beginnings of our history until the present time, we Jews have been involved in a continuing process of self-definition. We have never stopped asking ourselves the most fundamental question of our identity: Who is a Jew? Others too have asked us the same question from time to time, but before they can be given an answer, we always need to answer our own question to ourselves first. The question to ourselves is more urgent inasmuch as others can usually live coherently without definitions about who are those who are other than themselves. But we cannot live coherently as insiders without such a definition. It is the question of our own identity.

In our own day, the question “Who is a Jew?” is being asked again with special urgency. In the Diaspora, the question is asked every time a Jew deliberates over the ready modern option of remaining part of the Jewish people or separating from it, and every time a non-Jew deliberates whether to seek admission to the Jewish people or not. In the State of Israel, the question “Who is a Jew?” has been a major political issue, since the “Law of Return” (hog hashevut) that guarantees admission and citizenship to any Jew is vaguely formulated. On a number of occasions, the question has been the subject of landmark decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court. Surely, the answer to this question will largely determine how we understand both what separates us from the rest of the world and what connects us to it.