About Legal structure in Israel — Judaism Test after 1990. Who is a jew?— The Laws of Return

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Jewish atheism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_atheism

Jewish atheism[1] is the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish.

"Jewish atheism" is not a contradiction[2] because Jewish identity encompasses not only religious components but also, and for most Jews mainly, ethnic and cultural ones. Jewish law's emphasis on descent through the mother means that even religiously conservative Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as fully Jewish.[3]

Jewish secularism, which describes Jews who do not explicitly reject God's existence but also do not believe it is an important part of their Jewishness, has a long tradition in the United States.[4]

Statistics

A 2013 Pew Research Center study found that 62% of self-described American Jews say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, 55% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while 66% say it is not necessary to believe in God to be Jewish.[5]

A 2025 Pew Research Center study found that 26% of self-described American Jews "don't believe in God or a universal spirit and they are certain in this belief".[6]

Organized Jewish life

Atheist and secular Jewish organizations mostly date to the 20th century, from the Jewish socialist Bund in early-20th-century Poland to the modern Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations and the Society for Humanistic Judaism in the United States.

Many Jewish atheists feel comfortable within any of the three major non-Orthodox Jewish denominations (Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist). This is less of a contradiction than it might first seem, given Judaism's emphasis on practice over belief, with even mainstream guides to Judaism suggesting that belief in God is not necessary for Jewish observance.[7] But Orthodox Judaism regards the acceptance of the "Yoke of Heaven" (the sovereignty of the God of Israel in the world and the divine origin of the Torah) as a fundamental obligation for Jews, and the Reform movement has rejected atheistic temples' efforts at affiliation even though many Reform Jews are atheist or agnostic.[8] Nevertheless, there are many atheists in many denominations of modern Judaism, from Humanistic Judaism to Conservative Judaism.[9]

Jewish theology

19th-century and early-20th-century Reform Judaism in the U.S., which became the dominant form of Judaism there by the 1880s, was profoundly shaped by its engagement with high-profile skeptics and atheists such as Robert Ingersoll and Felix Adler. These included the writings of rabbis such as Isaac Mayer Wise, Kaufmann Kohler, Emil G. Hirsch, Joseph Krauskopf, Aaron Hahn, and J. Leonard Levy, resulting in a distinctly panentheistic U.S. Reform Jewish theology, which many would have viewed as atheistic or having atheistic tendencies.[10]

Liberal Jewish theology makes few metaphysical claims and is thus compatible with atheism on an ontological level. The founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Kaplan, espoused a naturalistic definition of God, and some post-Holocaust theology has also eschewed a personal god.[11][12] The Jewish philosopher Howard Wettstein has advanced a non-metaphysical approach to religious commitment, according to which metaphysical theism-atheism is not the issue.[13] Harold Schulweis, a Conservative rabbi trained in the Reconstructionist tradition, has argued that Jewish theology should move from a focus on God to an emphasis on "godliness". This "predicate theology", while continuing to use theistic language, makes few metaphysical claims that non-believers would find objectionable.[14][15]

Secular Jewish culture

See also: Jewish secularism

Many Jewish atheists reject even this level of ritualized and symbolic identification, instead embracing a thoroughgoing secularism and basing their Jewishness entirely in ethnicity and secular Jewish culture. Possibilities for secular Jewishness include identification with Jewish history and peoplehood, immersion in Jewish literature (including such non-religious Jewish authors as Philip Roth and Amos Oz), consumption of Jewish food, use of Jewish humor, and attachment to Jewish languages such as Yiddish, Hebrew, and Ladino. A high proportion of Israeli Jews consider themselves secular, rejecting some religious practices (see Religion in Israel). While some non-believers of Jewish ancestry do not consider themselves Jews, preferring to define themselves solely as atheists, others believe Judaism is a culture and tradition that can be embraced without religious faith.[16]

Many Jewish atheists continue to observe Jewish traditions, holidays, and customs, but view them more as cultural heritage than religious obligations. For example, celebrating Hanukkah or Passover can be seen as an important family and cultural ritual rather than a religious act.[17][18] In the documentary series Еврейское счастье (Jewish Happiness), alongside exploring other aspects, the question "Who is a Jew?" is extensively discussed. In one episode, a family of atheists deeply engages in certain Jewish religious traditions, such as Shabbat, which, one of the documentary's characters asserts, has come to us as a tradition from ancient times but fits very well into contemporary reality. Specifically, it provides the opportunity to spend a whole day communicating with one's children, free from pervasive modern issues like phubbing and FOMO.[19]

Some Jewish atheists are active in secular and humanist movements that advocate separation of church and state, human rights, and a scientific worldview.[20][21]

Notable people

See also: List of Jewish atheists and agnostics

Famous atheist or agnostic Jews include Albert Einstein, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Their views on religion influenced their work and philosophical positions as well as subsequent scientists and philosophers.[22][23][24] Many well-known Jews have rejected a belief in deities. Some have denied the existence of a traditional deity while continuing to use religious language. Marx was born into an ethnically Jewish family but raised as a Lutheran, and is among the most notable and influential atheist thinkers of modern history; he developed dialectical and historical materialism, which became the basis for his critique of capitalism and theories of scientific socialism. He was a major influence on other prominent Jewish intellectuals, including Moses Hess. One of Marx's most cited comments on religion is "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."[25]

The contradictory symbiosis between religiosity and atheism among atheists in the Jewish context has ambivalent qualities and is discussed extensively in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, as is how Jewish thinkers deal with these dynamics. This nuanced connection is also evident in other prominent Jewish atheists who maintained their cultural identity. The text discusses how the concept of religion developed in a Judeo-Christian context can be incorrect when applied outside that context. But careful application of these concepts can shed light on the unique perspectives of Jewish atheists who still value their cultural heritage.[26][27] In Freud's The Future of an Illusion, he eschews religious belief and outlines its origins and prospects. But Freud also urged a Jewish colleague to raise his son in the Jewish religion, saying, "If you do not let your son grow up as a Jew, you will deprive him of those sources of energy which cannot be replaced by anything else."[28] Other researchers have written about Freud's views on religion and Jewish identity.[29][30]

Other famous Jews have wholeheartedly embraced atheism, rejecting religiosity altogether. The anarchist Emma Goldman was born to an Orthodox Jewish family and rejected belief in God,[31] while the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, when asked if she believed in God, answered: "I believe in the Jewish people, and the Jewish people believe in God."[32] Of David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel known for his atheism, it was often said: "Although he didn't believe in God, it seems God believed in him."[33] Woody Allen's work often explores the tension between his Jewishness and religious doubt ("Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends").[34] David Silverman, president of the American Atheists from 2010 to 2018, swore after his bar mitzvah that he would never again lie about his atheism.[35] American Jewish author Philip Roth was an outspoken atheist and called himself anti-religious.[citation needed] Ayn Rand, a Russia-born American philosopher of Jewish descent, was a staunch atheist and considered atheism an integral part of her philosophy of objectivism. Her atheistic ideas significantly influenced libertarianism and individualism.[36]

Research studies

Jewish atheism has a long history, with recorded sources dating to the 17th century. Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza is considered the Jewish herald of the secular age.[37][38] In his Historical and Critical Dictionary, Pierre Bayle called Spinoza "the greatest atheist". Jewish thinkers of the 19th century were especially zealous in accusing Spinoza of atheism (criticizing his work Ethics),[39][40][41][42] especially in terms of his denial of "revelation", but this was not atheism in the modern sense.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Jews embraced secular and socialist ideals. Particularly in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, many Jews became atheists under the influence of communist ideology.[43][44][45]

Confirming the diverse history of Jewish atheism, reflecting a wide range of views and approaches to faith and identity, a blog entry by Vladimir Minkov on the Times of Israel portal notes that a significant portion of modern U.S. Jews identify themselves as atheists or agnostics. Minkov argues that this is due to various factors, including lack of deep understanding of Jewish religious teachings and desire to find a Jewish identity outside traditional religious frameworks.[46] Some interviews with Jewish atheists show that many of them continue to observe Jewish traditions and participate in cultural activities despite renouncing their religious beliefs. This demonstrates ambivalence when cultural-ethnic identity and a certain religiosity are preserved even in the absence of faith in God.[47] Thus atheism among Jews is not only widespread but multifaceted, providing rich material for research and discussion on the topic of faith and identity in the Jewish context and making atheism among Jews an interesting subject for interdisciplinary research.[48]

See also

Notes

  1. Harris, Rachel S. (2024). Journal of Jewish Identities. Vol. 17. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Second:

Legal structure in Israel[edit]

Israel has no single document called a constitution (the Basic Laws of Israel function as an uncodified constitution); however, the definition of "who is a Jew" has become an important issue in Israeli politics due to the involvement of religious parties in the Knesset.

The issue of who is considered a Jew has given rise to legal controversy in Israel. There have been court cases in Israel since 1962 that have addressed the question.[81][82]

Judaism test[edit]

As of 2010, anyone who immigrated to Israel after 1990 and wishes to marry or divorce via the Jewish tradition within the state limits must go through a "Judaism test"[83] at an Orthodox Rabbinical court. In this test, a person would need to prove their claim to be Jewish to an investigator beyond a reasonable doubt. They would need to present original documentation of their matriline up to their great-grandmother (4 generations),[84] or in the case of Ethiopian Jews, 7 generations back.[85]In addition, they should provide government documents with nationality/religion shown as Jewish (e.g., birth/death certificates, marriage documents, etc.).

In the case of people whose original documents have been lost or never existed, it may take a lot of work to prove their being Jewish.[86] The court rulings are not final, and any clerk has the power to question them[87] even 20 years later, changing one's citizenship status to "on hold", and putting them in jeopardy of deportation.[88]

The two biggest communities suffering from this problem are:

  • Immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) – a study conducted between 2003 and 2005 showed that 83% of people from the FSU who started the Judaism test process successfully finished it. An estimated 10% left the process before completion. In a later study, in 2011, a 90% success rate was achieved in the FSU immigrant community.[89][90]Many Jews in the former Soviet Union took steps to hide their Jewishness. Besides post-Soviet copies of documents are suspected by the tribunal after widespread falsification, and the archived originals are difficult to access for genealogists.[91]
  • Immigrants from the United States, where government documents generally do not show religion or Jewish ethnicity.[92][93][94][95]

Law of Return[edit]

See also: Law of Return

Following the birth of the modern State of Israel in 1948, the Law of Return was enacted to give any Jew the right to immigrate to Israel and become a citizen.[96] However, due to an inability on the lawmakers to agree, the Law did not define who was a Jew, relying instead on the issue to resolve itself over time. As a result, the Law relied in form on the traditional halakhic definition. But, the absence of a definition of who is a Jew, for the purpose of the Law, has resulted in the divergent views of the various streams of Judaism competing for recognition.

Besides the generally accepted halakhic definition of who is a Jew, the Law extended the categories of person who are entitled to immigration and citizenship to the children and grandchildren of Jews, regardless of their present religious affiliation, and their spouses.[97] Also, converts to Judaism whose conversion was performed outside the State of Israel, regardless of who performed it, were entitled to immigration under the Law. Once again, issues arose as to whether a conversion performed outside Israel was valid. The variation of the definition in the Law and the definition used by various branches of Judaism has resulted in practical difficulties for many people.

It has been estimated that in the past twenty years about 300,000 avowed non-Jews and even practicing Christians have entered Israel from the former Soviet Union on the basis of being a child or grandchild of a Jew or by being married to a Jew.[98]

However, there was an exception in the case of a person who had formally converted to another religion derived from the Rufeisen Case in 1962.[81] Such a person, no matter what their halakhic position, was not entitled to immigration under the Law. This created a divergence between political Zionist interpretation of Jewishness and that of halakha. In the 1970 Shalit case the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favour of a family which sought to register children born in Israel from a Scottish mother as Jewish by nationality,[81] but the 1972 amendment to the Population Registry Law prevented their third child being registered as Jewish.[99]

Current Israeli definitions specifically exclude Jews who have openly and knowingly converted to or were raised in a faith other than Judaism, including Messianic Judaism. This definition is not the same as that in traditional Jewish law; in some respects it is deliberately wider, so as to include those non-Jewish relatives of Jews who may have been perceived to be Jewish, and thus faced antisemitism.

The Law of Return does not, of itself, define the Jewish status of a person; it only deals with those who have a right of immigration to Israel.

In the early 1950s, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate originally objected to the immigration of Karaite Jews to Israel, and unsuccessfully tried to obstruct it. In 2007 Rabbi David Chayim Chelouche, the chief rabbi of Netayana, was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying: "A Karaite is a Jew. We accept them as Jews and every one of them who wishes to come back [to mainstream Judaism] we accept back. There was once a question about whether Karaites needed to undergo a token circumcision in order to switch to rabbinic Judaism, but the rabbinate agrees that today that is not necessary."[100]

Israeli laws governing marriage and divorce[edit]

See also: Marriage in Israel

In relation to marriage, divorce, and burial, which are under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Interior Ministry, the halakhic definition of who is a Jew is applied. When there is any doubt, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate generally determines the issue.

In terms of social relations, most secular Jews view their Jewish identity as a matter of culture, heritage, nationality, or ethnicity.[101] Ancestral aspects can be explained by the many Jews who view themselves as atheist and are defined by matrilineal descent[44][102] or a Cohen (Kohen) or Levi, which is connected by ancestry.[103] The question of "who is a Jew" is a question that is under debate.[104] Issues related to ancestral or ethnic Jews are dealt with by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.[105][106][107][108]

Orthodox halachic rules apply to converts who want to marry in Israel. Under these rules, a conversion to Judaism must strictly follow halachic standards to be recognised as valid. The rabbinate even scrutinizes Orthodox conversions, with some who have converted by orthodox authorities outside Israel not being permitted to marry in Israel.[108][109]

If one's ancestral line of Jewishness is in doubt, then a proper conversion would be required in order to be allowed to marry in the Orthodox community, or in Israel, where such rules govern all marriages.

Israeli definition of nationality[edit]

The Jewish status of a person in Israel is considered a matter of "nationality".

In the registering of "nationality" on Israeli Teudat Zehut ("identity card"), which is administered by the Ministry of the Interior, a person had to meet the halakhic definition to be registered as a "Jew". However, in a number of cases the Supreme Court of Israel has ordered the Interior Ministry to register Reform and Conservative converts as Jews. The right of people who convert in the Diaspora under Reform or Conservative auspices to make aliyah, or immigrate to Israel and claim citizenship as Jews, is detailed in Israeli law.[110]

Until recently, Israeli identity cards had an indication of nationality, and the field was left empty for those who immigrated not solely on the basis of being Jewish (i.e. as a child, grandchild or spouse of a Jew only) to indicate that the person may not be a Jew. Many Israeli citizens who are not recognised by the Rabbinate as Jewish have been issued with Israeli identity cards that do not include their Hebrew calendar birth date.

Outside Israel[edit]

This section is incomplete. (November 2013)

In 2010 the Labour Court of South Africa addressed the question of who is a Jew for the purposes of the Employment Equity Act.[111]

The question has also arisen in the United Kingdom, where religious schools are allowed to select all, or a proportion of their intake based upon religion. A 2009 ruling, R(E) v Governing Body of JFS, determined that the definition of Jewish religion based upon descent constituted discrimination on ethnic grounds, and therefore contravened racial discrimination laws.

Other definitions[edit]

This section is incomplete. (November 2013)

There have been other attempts to determine Jewish identity beside the traditional Jewish approaches. These range from genetic population studies[c] to controversial evolutionary perspectives including those espoused by Kevin B. MacDonaldand Yuri Slezkine. Historians, such as the late Kamal Salibi, have utilized etymology and geography to reconstruct the prehistoric origin of the Jewish people in the Arabian Peninsula.[112]

Sociology and anthropology[edit]

As with any other ethnic identity, Jewish identity is, to some degree, a matter of either claiming that identity or being perceived by others (both inside and outside the ethnic group) as belonging to that group, or both. Returning again to the example of Madeleine Albright – during her Catholic childhood, her being in some sense Jewish was presumably irrelevant. It was only after she was nominated to be Secretary of State that she, and the public, discovered her Jewish ancestry.

Ido Abram states that there are five aspects to contemporary Jewish identity:

  1. Religion, culture, and tradition.
  2. The tie with Israel and Zionism.
  3. Dealings with antisemitism, including issues of persecution and survival.
  4. Personal history and life-experience.
  5. Relationship with non-Jewish culture and people.[113][114]

The relative importance of these factors may vary enormously from place to place. For example, a typical Dutch Jew might describe his or her Jewish identity simply as "I was born Jewish," while a Jew in Romania, where levels of antisemitism are higher, might say, "I consider any form of denying as a proof of cowardice."[115][clarification needed]

The Inquisition[edit]

During the time of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, conversion to Roman Catholicism did not result in total termination of the person's Jewish status. Legally, the converts were no longer regarded as Jews, and thus allowed to stay in the Iberian Peninsula. During the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, however, many Jews were forced to convert, but thereafter were regarded by many people, though not in a legal form, as New Christians, distinguishing them as separate from the Old Christians of non-Jewish lineage. Since legal, political, religious and social pressure pushed many people to untrue conversions (public behaviour as Christians while retaining some Jewish beliefs and practices privately, a kind of crypto-Judaism),[d] they were still treated with suspicion, a stigma sometimes carried for several generations by their identifiable descendants. The limpieza de sangre ("Cleanliness of blood") required public officials or candidates for membership of many organizations to prove that they did not have Jewish or Muslim ancestry.

Secular philosophy[edit]

Jean-Paul Sartre, who was not Jewish, suggested in Anti-Semite and Jew (1948) that Jewish identity "is neither national nor international, neither religious nor ethnic, nor political: it is a quasi-historical community." While Jews as individuals may be in danger from the antisemite who sees only "Jews" and not "people", Sartre argues that the Jewish experience of antisemitism preserves—even creates—the sense of Jewish community. In his most extreme statement of this view he wrote, "It is the anti-Semite who creates the Jew." Conversely, that sense of specific Jewish community may be threatened by the democrat who sees only "the person" and not "the Jew".

Hannah Arendt repeatedly asserted a principle of claiming Jewish identity in the face of antisemitism. "If one is attacked as a Jew, one must defend oneself as a Jew. Not as a German, not as a world-citizen, not as an upholder of the Rights of Man, or whatever"; "A man attacked as a Jew cannot defend himself as an Englishman or a Frenchman. The world can only conclude from this that he is simply not defending himself at all."

Wade Clark Roof (1976), a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, proposed that social sectors in modern life, in which traditional symbols and rituals are meaningful, provide an alternative approach for explaining the social basis of religion in a secular order, in doing so, he turned to the local community as a sphere in modern society that still persists "as a complex system of friendship and kinship networks, formal and informal associations, as well as symbolic attachments, very much rooted in family life and ongoing socialization processes".[116]

Antisemitic definitions[edit]

The question "who is a Jew?" is also sometimes of importance to non-Jews. It has had exceptional significance historically when considered by anti-Jewish groups for the purpose of targeting Jews for persecution or discrimination. The definition can impact on whether a person may have a certain job, live in certain locations, receive a free education, live or continue to live in the country, be imprisoned, or executed.

Nazism[edit]

The question was of critical importance during the rule of the Nazi party in Germany, which persecuted the Jews and defined them for the government's purposes by the Nuremberg Laws. In 2009, a United Kingdom court considered whether the question was a racial issue, in the case R(E) v Governing Body of JFS (2009).[117]

The Nazi regime instituted laws discriminating against Jews, declared a race by the Nazis, and thus needed a working definition of who is a Jew as to its law-defined race system. These definitions almost completely categorised persons through the religions followed by each individual's ancestors, according to membership registries. Thus, personal faith or individual observance, as well as the religious definitions of Judaism as given by the Halacha, were mostly ignored.

In Germany itself, the Ahnenpass and Nuremberg Laws classified people as being of the Jewish race if they descended from three or four grandparents enrolled in Jewish congregations. A person with one or two grandparents enrolled in a Jewish congregation could be classified as Mischling,[118] a crossbreed, of "mixed blood", if they were not a member of a Jewish congregation at the time the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. Only people with at least two of their grandparents of "German blood" could be German Reich's citizens, other Germans dropped into the new second class group of citizens, the so-called state citizens.[119] If a person, with grandparents of the same religious combination, was enrolled as a member of a Jewish congregation in 1935 or would join later, they switched from the discriminatory class of Mischlinge into that of Geltungsjude, "Jew by legal validity", despite of not fulfilling the no less law-defined discriminating criterion of descending from three or four Jewish grandparents. Whereas every Mischling could anytime drop into the class of Geltungsjude by joining a Jewish congregation, the Nuremberg Laws provided for the unchanged classification of any Geltungsjude, regardless if she or he tried to evade harm by seceding from the Jewish congregation after 1935, considering such secessions as being of no effect as to the discrimination. Let alone people with three or four Jewish grandparents who themselves could never alter their law-defined racial categorisation as Jews. Any Mischling with two Jewish grandparents, colloquially called a half-Jew, marrying after 1935 anybody classified as Jew would drop into the discriminatory class of Geltungsjude. Mischlinge with one Jewish grandparent were usually forbidden to marry anybody with any Jewish grandparent. The Mischling Test was introduced to identify Europeans with Jewish blood and consider those tested "Jews of the first or second degree."

One could not become a non-Jew in the eyes of the Nazi government by seceding from one's Jewish congregation, becoming non-practicing, marrying outside the religion, or converting to Christianity. In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws forbade new marriages of people classified as Jews with people of other classifications.[e] Earlier contracted marriages between spouses of different classifications (so-called mixed marriages; Mischehe) provided the Jewish-classified spouse with an uncertain protection from some discriminations and atrocities.

There were very few Karaites in Europe during the Nazi era; most lived in the region of Turkey, Greece, and the Crimea. Karaites were not considered Jewish for the purpose of the Holocaust extermination policy;[120] according to SS Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, writing on November 24, 1944, discrimination against the Karaites had been prohibited due to their proximity to the Crimean Tatars, to whom Berger views the Karaites as being related. Nazis still retained hostility towards the Karaites, on grounds of their religion; and there were a number of small scale massacres of Karaites.

In German-occupied France an ordinance defined a Jew as an individual who belonged to the Jewish religion or who had more than two Jewish grandparents.[121]

The Vichy régime in southern France defined a Jew as an individual with three Jewish grandparents or two grandparents if his/her spouse was Jewish. Richard Weisberg points out that this was a potentially broader classification than the one used in Occupied France, for example, a Mischling could not be classified a Jew under the Nazi dictate, by her/his spouse's classification if the marriage was contracted before the imposition of anti-Semitic marriage laws there, but would be deemed one under the Vichy act if he/she had married a Jew, regardless when.[121]

Israelite identity loss claims[edit]

See also: Israelite and Ten Lost Tribes

There are various groups besides Jews that have claimed descent from the biblical Israelites. The question nowadays arises in relation to Israel's Law of Return, with various groups seeking to migrate there. Some claims have been accepted, some are under consideration, while others have been rejected by Israel's rabbinate.

Cochin Jews (Indian Jews)[edit]

See also: Cochin Jews

Some sources say that the earliest Jews of Cochin, India were those who settled in the Malabar Coast during the times of King Solomon of Israel, and after the Kingdom of Israel split into two. There is historical documentation of the Jews being in Cochin after the fall of the Second Temple, from around the first century CE. Later additions were a smaller immigration of Sephardic Jews from Europe in the sixteenth century after the expulsion from Spain, and Baghdadi Jews, Arabic-speaking Jews who arrived in the late eighteenth century, at the beginning of the British colonial era.[122] Following the independence of India and the establishment of Israel, most Cochin Jews emigrated to Israel in the mid-1950s. Some have gone on to North America or Britain.

Bene Israel[edit]

See also: Bene Israel

The Bene Israel in India claim to be descended from Jews who escaped persecution in Galilee in the 2nd century BCE. The Bene Israel resemble the non-Jewish Marathi people in appearance and customs, which indicates some intermarriage between Jews and Indians. The Bene Israel, however, maintained the practices of Jewish dietary laws, male circumcisionand observation of the Sabbath as a day of rest. From the late eighteenth century, other Jewish communities instructed them in normative Judaism.

Initially the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel said that the Bene Israel would have to undergo conversion in order to marry other Jews, as matrilineal descent could not be proven. In 1964 the Israeli Rabbinate declared that the Bene Israel are "full Jews in every respect".

The Bene Israel claim a lineage to the Kohanim, the Israelite priestly class, which claims descent from Aaron, the brother of Moses. In 2002, DNA testing revealed that the Bene Israel shared some genetic markers of the Kohanim. These are not exclusive to the Kohanim, but appear among them at a higher frequency. These are also shared with some non-Jewish Semitic peoples.[123][124]

Many of the Bene Israel emigrated from India to Israel, where around 6,000 Jews of this group reside. About 5,000 remain in India. They maintain 65 synagogues in Israel.[125]

Beta Israel[edit]

The Beta Israel or Falasha is a group formerly living in Ethiopia who have a tradition of descent from the lost tribe of Dan. They have a long history of practicing such Jewish traditions as kashrut, Sabbath and Passover, and had Jewish texts. In 1975, their claim of Jewishness was accepted by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Israeli government. The government assisted them in emigrating en masse to Israel during the 1980s and 1990s as Jews under the Law of Return, when Ethiopia was undergoing civil war. Some who claim to be Beta Israel still live in Ethiopia.

Bnei Menashe[edit]

The Bnei Menashe is a group in India claiming to be descendants of the half-tribe of Menashe. Members who have studied Hebrew and who observe the Sabbath and other Jewish laws in 2005 received the support of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel to arrange formal conversion to Judaism. Some have converted and immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.

The Kaifeng Jews[edit]

For more details on this topic, see History of the Jews in China.

The Kaifeng Jews, a Mandarin-speaking group from Henan Province, China, experienced first contact with Europeans in 1605 via the religious scholar Matteo Ricci. Modern researchers believe these Jews were descended from Persian merchants who settled in China during the early Song Dynasty. They prospered during the Ming Dynasty as Confucian civil servants, soldiers, and merchants, but they quickly assimilated and lost much of their Jewish heritage. By the beginning of the 19th century, the last rabbi with knowledge of Hebrew died, leaving no successor. The community had become extinct religiously by the late Qing Dynasty due to anti-foreign persecutions brought on by the Taiping Rebellion and Boxer Rebellion. There are a small number of Chinese people today who consider themselves to be descendants of these Jews.[126]

Despite their isolation from the rest of the Jewish diaspora, the Jews of Kaifeng preserved Jewish traditions and customs for many centuries. In the 17th century, assimilation began to erode these traditions. The rate of intermarriage between Jews and other ethnic groups, such as the Han Chinese, and the Hui and Manchu minorities in China, increased. The destruction of the synagogue in the 1860s led to the community's demise.[127] However, J.L. Liebermann, the first Western Jew to visit Kaifeng in 1867, noted that "they still had a burial ground of their own". S.M. Perlmann, the Shanghai businessman and scholar, wrote in 1912 that "they bury their dead in coffins, but of a different shape than those of the Chinese are made, and do not attire the dead in secular clothes as the Chinese do, but in linen".[128] To date, there is only one scholar, Zhou Xu, who doubts the Kaifeng community's Jewishness and claims them to have been a western construct.[129]

Today, 600-1,000 residents of Kaifeng trace their lineage to this community.[127] After contact with Jewish tourists, the Jews of Kaifeng have reconnected to mainstream Jewry. With the help of Jewish organizations, some members of the community have emigrated to Israel.[127] In 2009, Chinese Jews from Kaifeng arrived in Israel as immigrants.[130][131][132]

The Lemba[edit]

See also: Jews and Judaism in Africa

The Lemba, a Bantu-speaking group of people from southern Africa, primarily Zimbabwe and South Africa, consider themselves of Jewish descent, although most practice Christianity or Islam. They emphasize eating only meats slaughtered by special ritual. They have endogamous marriage practices. If a man wants to marry a non-Lemba woman, she must adopt all the Lemba practices and traditions, including keeping meat and dairy foods separate. No male non-Lemba are accepted into the group, even by conversion.

The Lemba follow a patrilineal tradition. Y-DNA testing has shown a high percentage of Semitic ancestry, perhaps Jewish, among some of the males. Y-DNA testing has shown markers indicative of Semitic ancestry, including markers associated with Kohanim. These are present at a high rate among men in their Buba clan,[citation needed] traditionally known as the one to have led the men to south Africa from Yemen after they left Israel. The women are exclusively of African origin,[citation needed] which is consistent with the tribe's origin story of Jewish men coming to Africa.

New Mexico's Crypto-Jews[edit]

A small Hispano group of Sephardic Jews in northern New Mexico may be one of the oldest groups of practicing Jews in North America, dating back to the early Spanish settlers of Jewish descent who had been forcibly converted to Catholicism as Conversos or New Christians, or both after 1492. Some families of Conversos began to settle in Mexico City in the 1530s and 1540s. Some converted back to Judaism; others maintained some Jewish beliefs and practices in secret. After the Spanish Inquisition came to the New World in 1571, the conversos were threatened with death if it was found they were practicing Judaism.

In 1598, the first expedition was made to New Mexico, and included conversos.[133] After that, other conversos fled to the northwestern frontier of the Spanish Empire,[134] now the American Southwest, to evade the scrutiny and threat of discovery in the more monitored settlements. Outwardly Catholic, these forced converts maintained Jewish practices and customs for generations in secret, hence their name, "Crypto-Jews". They have been the subject of recent academic study.[135] Some of New Mexico's Crypto-Jews have begun to return to normative Judaism in recent years, through study and ritual conversion.[136] Others feel enlarged by learning this part of their history, but continue as practicing Catholics.

A genetic study of men in the early 2000s showed that many Hispanos of the American Southwest are descended from Anusim (Sephardic Jews who were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism). Only Catholic Spanish were allowed to go to the New World with the exploration and colonial expeditions. Families first kept their secrets for protection and then out of habit. Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Semites possessed the male-specific "Cohanim marker" or Cohen Modal Haplotype, which is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests. 30 of 78 Latinos tested in New Mexico (38.5%), were found to have Y-DNA with the Cohanim marker.[134] Wider DNA testing of Hispanic populations has revealed between 10% and 15% of men living in New Mexico, south Texas and northern Mexico have a Y chromosome associated with the Middle East. Their history makes it most likely that they are Jewish rather than Arabic Muslim.

In 2008, a gene mutation that is typically found only in Ashkenazi Jews, and is linked to a virulent form of breast cancer in women, was discovered in a cluster of Hispanic Catholic women in southern Colorado, many of whom trace their family's roots to northern New Mexico. It was conclusively shown to be related to Jewish ancestry, given the history of the people in the area, and many families reported knowledge of a high incidence of cancer. After testing and notification of families, researchers worked with the extended families on genetic counseling and to develop health strategies for monitoring, early detection and treatment, as they were faced with the higher risk associated with the gene.[133]

Other evidence of Jewish ancestry is language. According to a Jewish genealogy blog, so-called "Mountain Spanish", a Spanish dialect spoken by many of the old families of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado—and chiefly only among themselves—appears to be a form of Ladino or Judezmo. This was a hybrid language that developed among Sephardic Jews in Iberia, from Old Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew, with sprinklings of Arabic, Greek and other languages, depending on the geographic region of the speakers or their ancestors.[137]

Other claims[edit]

Other claims of lost tribe status or other Jewish origin, have not yet been accepted by normative Jews.

  • A tribe of Siberian Asian origin based in Central Russia connects their claims of Jewish rather than pantheistic practices with the Khazars. The latter, an invading tribe from either Mongolia or Kazakhstan that conquered and ruled Russia in the 9th century, is said to have adopted Judaism instead of Christianity or Islam, by their leaders' preference.[citation needed]
  • A tribe in western Burma near the Indian and Bangladeshi borders has sought genetic research to vindicate its tradition that their ancestors were Syrian and Iranian Jews. Judaism has not become a major theological force in Southeast Asia. Introduced religions such as Hinduism and Islam, which converted several tribal groups, have existed in Indochina (Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) for hundreds or thousands of years.[citation needed]

See also[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up ^ See Ethnic group.
  2. Jump up ^ See Jewish ethnic divisions.
  3. Jump up ^ See Y-chromosomal Aaron
  4. Jump up ^ See Marrano and Anusim
  5. Jump up ^ See Anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany, Mischlinge

References[edit]

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  132. Jump up ^ Rebecca Bitton (August 24, 2010). "Kaifeng Jews study in Israeli yeshiva".
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  137. Jump up ^ "Turkey: A Ladino newspaper". Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog. October 9, 2009. In northern New Mexico, the descendants of Converso settlers who arrived as early as the late 16th century, still speak "Mountain Spanish." In reality, it is 16th century Ladino, and scholars who have visited them have been amazed at how well the language has been transmitted down through the generations.
  • Kertzer, Morris (1996). What is a Jew?. New York: Touchstone. ISBN 0-684-84298-X.
  • Siedman, Lauren (2007). What Makes Someone a Jew?. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58023321-7.

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5 maj 2025