What shapes Jewish idenitity?
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Transcript of What shapes Jewish idenitity?
What Shapes Jewish Identity?
Outline
What is Jewish Identity?How did it develop?What shapes it today? What is our response?
What is Jewish identity? Unpacking the question
– An issue with an agenda– Like the question “Who is a Jew?”
1. Survival2. Religion3. Defence
Why is it important?
“The source of so many failures in evangelical efforts to ‘convert’ Jews is the narrow fundamentalist definition of what constitutes Jewishness”(Horowitz - Jewish Survival)
Defining personal identity
How is individual identity formed?
How does religious identity develop?
Erikson's 8 Ages0-2 Trust2-4 Autonomy4-6 Initiative6-12 Industry13-19 IDENTITY20-30 Intimacy30-60 Responsibility65-? Integrity
What is ethnic identity?
A social way of organising cultural difference
A combination of ancestry, territory, language and culture
Identity markers shift
What is Jewish identity?
Religious, ethnic or both?“A multiplexed phenomenon moving in
a variety of historical as well as structural directions”
Jewish Identity Stages
Covenant 2000-1250
Settlement 1250-500
Rabbinism 500-500
Diaspora 500-1800
Emancipation 1800-1945
Postmodernity 1945-1999
World Jewish Population
World, Israel and Diaspora Population
“Core and Peripheral Jews”
1
3
2
4
1. Jews
2. Non-Jewish
family of 1.
3. “Former
Jews”
4. Non-Jewish
family of 3.
USA Denominational Links
Types of Jewish Identity
Normative/Traditional 2 millionEthnicity/Communal 6 millionCultural Residue 4 million Dual Jewish/Non-Jewish 1 million
Seven Factors
PopulationGeography
– Diaspora/Israel ImmigrationPolitics ReligionPostmodernityMessianic movementMessiah
Conclusion
Jewish identity both religious and ethnic
All identity flawed without the Messiah
See Him clearly before we see ourselves
“What shapes Jewish Identity?”
is available at
www.mmjt.eu Copies of the paper are available from the
Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism
email: [email protected]