In this series on DKos, we've explored the origins of the Jewish communities around the world. We've seen:
- Jewish origins 1: Ashkenaz - The Jews of Europe, not Khazar
- Jewish origins 2: Sephard - The far flung Iberians
- Jewish origins 3: Africa - Back in Black
- Jewish origins 4: Babel on - Iraq, Persia, The Caucasus, and Central Asia
- Jewish origins 5: India and China - Call center Cousins
If all of these people, with different histories, different colors, different languages, and different religious practices - or no religious practices at all - are all Jewish, then what does it mean to be Jewish?
We can certainly identify some constant and consistent themes in the history of all of these groups:
Theme: Oppression
Sadly, as we have seen in the series, one of the major constants of Jewish history is oppression. Whether it is murderous pogroms, libelous accusations, bizarre conspiracy theories, restrictions on employment, confinement to ghettos or regions, prohibitions on employment and associations, or the wearing of shaming garments, almost all of the Jewish groups we looked at have experienced all of those in their history.
We saw the following was said in 19th century Iran, but it could have been true of many societies at many times throughout history:
every time that a priest wishes to emerge from obscurity and win a reputation for piety, he preaches war against the Jews
I was asked in one of the diaries (not in a very nice way), why does this oppression keep happening, in different societies, all over the world?
The best answer I can give is that rulers and authorities are always looking for a group to use as a scape-goat or a distraction to deflect their peoples' discontent and energy. However, there is usually a check on how far a minority group can be mistreated, for they will often be in control of, or have some power in, some neighboring polity, and the potential military, diplomatic, or economic consequences of mistreatment will be manifest.
However, the Jewish people were rather unique in having not had any state where they exercised significant political power in nearly 2000 years. For them, without political power in any state, there was no check on the extent to which rulers, authorities - and those wishing to be authorities - could single them out for mistreatment and libel.
It seems there were literally no exceptions to this unfortunate pattern among the world's Jewish groups we looked at, although perhaps the least victimized overall were the Mountain Jews, while many groups could have a case for the most victimized.
Theme: Achievement
The strange flip side of this constant of oppression is a constant of achievement.
Whenever the restrictions are loosened, and the Jewish people are actually allowed to participate in the life of their society, they achieve unprecedented success in science, medicine, literature, business, and the arts.
The sole exception to this pattern seemed to be the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, who were for the most part never given the chance to participate in anything other than a rural, pre-modern society. As we saw in this series, all of the other groups, from India to Germany to America, spectacularly rose to the occasion when given the chance.
We saw it with the Bene Israel of India, who, after nearly 2000 years of rural obscurity, rapidly rose to dominate the educated middle class of their area when given the chance by the British in the 1800s. We saw it with the Persian Jews and the Iraqis, who came to be very important in the modernizations of their respective countries. We saw it with the Sephardim, who, in their history, were the academics and philosophers of the golden age of Islamic Spain, then later came back to be the economic might behind the Dutch Republic and the Ottoman Empire. And it's a classic American success story how the Jews who came to her shores were able to rise from poverty and pogroms to the forefront of American academics, entertainment, and business.
Some statistics can highlight the phenomenon. In spite of being about 0.2% of the world's population, Jewish people constitute 20% of Nobel Prize winners. And it isn't just because of America. Azerbaijan, Latvia, and Bulgaria have one Nobel laureate each, and all three are Jewish. The first science Nobel Laureate from the Arab world was Jewish. Of the 25 or so people the the old Soviet Union sent to the podium in Sweden, around 20% were Jewish, in spite of significant official discrimination that was in place. Of Hungary's 10 Nobel Laureates, 5 were Jewish.
People of Jewish or part-Jewish heritage have been the heads of government or state in Britain, Italy, France, and Australia. And of course, the raw mathematical odds of Time Magazine's first and thus far only 'Person of the Century' being Jewish were quite small (something like 1 in 500), and yet there Einstein was on the cover.
In short, achievement when given the chance is a striking continuity among Jewish people the world over.
It is also wonderfully ironic that this remarkable tendency for achievement in the 'knowledge economy' of today (and select times and places in the past) may be rooted in the history of oppression:
Throughout most of history, due to their low power status in their respective societies, the traditional, medieval avenues of advancement - such as military service, land ownership, and getting in good with the king or religious authorities - were largely closed off to the Jewish people. They therefore developed cultural traditions in what at the time were niche areas neglected by other people. Long before it was true for the bulk of humanity, for Jews the path to advancement or security - because none other was available - was largely study, thriftiness, and the accumulation of human capital. Once that became true of the larger society as well, the Jewish People, wherever they were, were uniquely positioned.
Theme: Wanderers
At the intersection of oppression and achievement is the theme of travel. In all of the groups we have seen, Jews have always been on the move. We saw how somehow Jewish men made their way from the Middle East to the very Southern tip of Africa to give rise to the Lemba people.
We saw how the Ashekazim went from the Mediterranean, to France, to the Rhineland, and later to Poland and Lithuania, and still later to America. We saw how some Sehpardim went from the Iberian peninsula to Istanbul, then Baghdad, then India, to form a significant community there, all in the course of 400 years. We saw how Persian Jews arrived in Central Asia and China centuries before Marco Polo. And we saw how small groups took to ships 2000 years ago and founded communities in India.
Jewish people have been on the move a lot, and that is a natural outcome of both being driven out by conditions, and the desire to seek better opportunities.
Theme: Imitation and co-option
An even more unexpected flip side to the theme of oppression is the theme of imitation and co-option.
The number of people who are trying or have tried to tie themselves to the Jewish people is quite staggering for a group that has simultaneously been so universally victimized. Often times it is a positive admiration or identification, as we saw with Louis Armstrong, or a benign and possibly dubious claim, such as with the Ethiopian monarchs or the Masons. But on the other hand, from the 'British Israelites', to the Rastafarians, to the Sons of Yahweh, various people all over the world want to see themselves as the 'true' Jews.
Clearly, the wider world has a schizophrenic attitude toward the Jewish people.
So what makes a Jew?
All of this discussion of the history and constant themes of the Jewish people brings us to the question that I promised I would answer, which is "What is a Jew?"
It is a question that stirs great passions and disagreements, but of course I am correct :)
The Jewish people are not a religious group
The defining characteristic of what makes someone a Jew is not being a member of a particular religion.
To see this, simply consider: was Albert Einstein a Jew? How about Robert Oppenheimer? Baruch Spinoza? Allen Ginsburg?
The answer to all of them, almost everyone will agree, is yes, all Jews! And yet all of of those people were, very publicly, not believers in the Hebraic religion.
For comparison, ask yourself: Would you consider Richard Dawkins a 'Christian'? Was George Harrison a Christian? Is Barack Obama a Muslim, because his only religious parent was? The answer to all those, we can all agree, is obviously "hell no".
So we have a situation where people are 'Jewish' even when they are not practicioners of a particular religion. The same is not the case with the strictly religious designations 'Christian' and 'Muslim'.
Next, we can examine the current nation of Israel, where perhaps a slight majority of the Jewish population consists of athiests, agnostics, and soft believers who do not subscribe to the tenets of the Hebraic religion. And yet they are the bulk of the people who all serve in the army and the government for the "Jewish state". Clearly, the very citizens of the world's only Jewish State are operating under a non-religious definition of being 'Jewish'.
Certainly, the Hebraic religion has played an essential part in the development, history, and continuity of the Jewish people. But religion is not the defining characteristic. There are many people who are clearly not members of the religion who are nonetheless Jewish, by heritage, ethnicity, and culture.
The Jewish people are a people
Since a strictly religious definition of who the Jews are fails, then what are they?
The answer is that the Jews are an ethno-cultural group, or, more simply simply a people.
"But", the objections fly, "all these Jewish groups don't look the same, and they don't speak the same language. How can you use the phrase ethno-cultural group?"
Well, let's compare them to that quintessential ethnic group - the Italians. You could bring together people of Italian ancestry from Italy, the USA, and Argentina, and they would all speak completely different languages, they would dress differently, and act differently. Some would be Catholic, some would be protestants, some would be Athiests, a few might be Buddhists or Rastafarians, and yet we would not seek to deny that they are all part of some cultural continuity that links them all.
Sticking with our quintessential ethnic group, we have no problem considering both Rocco Siffredi and Vincent Pastore to be 'Italian', yet they could not look less alike in terms of racial characteristics. Not to mention they speak different languages and live in different countries.
Another objection is "But how can the Jews be an ethno-cultural group if they don't ultimately come from one country of origin?" This objection simply results from forgetting that tidy nation states corresponding to ethnic divisions are a very recent 19th century invention, one that the Jews simply were denied until even later. For instance, there were no such countries as Italy, Greece, or Germany until 160 years ago, just to name a few. Greek Americans, for instance, have great-grandparents who immigrated from the Kingdom of Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Lebanon, just to name a few places. And the Pontian Greeks even spoke a different language. Yet we have no problem calling them all ethnically Greek. Today we have no trouble considering Arabs to constitute an ethno-cultural group, even though their homeland is spread across 30 nations and they range in color from Ralph Nader to Omar Bashir. These are not valid objections to defining a group as ethno-cultural.
An 'ethno-cultural group' implies a set of some shared cultural traits and at least some kind of shared ancestry. As we have seen in our explorations in this series, the Jewish people, wherever from, certainly have a set of common cultural traits. And as for shared ancestry, we have also seen in our explorations in this series that Y-chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA evidence paints a striking picture of a continuity of descent from a common founding population of men (and possibly a few women) for all of the Jewish communities, with the possible exceptions of the Ethiopians and the Cochinites.
Conclusion
So there you have it. The Jewish people are, well, a people. An ethno-cultural group that has been on the move all over the world for more than 2000 years.
In this series we've examined the history of how they spread across the old world from Northern Europe to Southern Africa to the far East.
We've seen the lows of pogrom and oppression, and the highs of achievement, discovery, and reunion. We've seen a people who have served as an international bridge between their host cultures. We've seen the shifting balance of assimilation and distinctness, and all the while of continuity. It is a story that is intimately entwined with all of the major developments of civilization the world over.
To close on a high note, here is an unlikely song that pretty much hits all the themes. Descended on his father's side from English Jews he never knew, Bob Marley, undoubtedly an achiever, embraced Rastafarianism and the accompanying Jewish and Ethiopian symbolism. Iron Lion Zion speaks of travel flight from danger, and perseverance. And it is chock full of imitation and co-option. How appropriate! You too can be Iron, like a Lion, in Zion, whoever you are and whatever Zion means to you.
This series:
- Jewish origins 1: Ashkenaz - The Jews of Europe, not Khazar
- Jewish origins 2: Sephard - The far flung Iberians
- Jewish origins 3: Africa - Back in Black
- Jewish origins 4: Babel on - Iraq, Persia, The Caucasus, and Central Asia
- Jewish origins 5: India and China - Call center Cousins
- Jewish origins 6: Continuity and what is a Jew?