by Barry Dredze

Created on: May 02, 2008   Last Updated: May 03, 2008

The question of whether or not Jewish identity is dependent upon the religious practice of Judaism is a tradition in itself. Columnist Jay Michaelson recently wrote a piece taking issue with the notion of Jewish peoplehood. In the April 16, 2008, issue of the Forward, Michaelson writes, "peoplehood is better understood negatively - that is, by that which it is not: not a religion, nor a nationality, nor an ethnicity, nor a culture. Indeed, any more positive definition of peoplehood necessarily leaves out someone or something."

Indeed, this is as it surely must be, so long as the nature of human civilization remains compartmentalized in a family of nations. Jews are a people, a nation. Judaism is a religion. Judaism and Jewishness are not necessarily distinctions without a difference. The Jewish people contains within it all the elements required for a recognizable national identity: a peculiar language and formative literature; a codified system of civil, legal and ethical principles; a shared history marked by a unique calendar. The only remaining argument is the matter of a people's legitimate qualification for national rights of self-determination in its historic homeland.

But should it even matter, to use Michaelson's example, whether or not Jews are "united behind Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people"? It ought to be absurd to argue that the historical and archaeological records of the Jews in what we know today as the state of Israel collapses under the first whispers of controversy over the political legitimacy of a state and its policies. Whether to consider Zionism as a spiritual movement or a political movement will depend entirely upon whether we approach exile as a spiritual condition or a political condition.

Ultimately, it ought to be history that matters. Not to dismiss the relevance of tradition in the belief system of Judaism, but rather to face the greater world of human civilization with the objectivity it deserves. It is equally unfair and unwise to expect people that may subscribe to other or no religious traditions to approach the spiritual exile of the Jews in religious terms. Rather, Jews and non-Jews alike can and ought to be encouraged to approach the political exile of the Jewish people in historical terms.

However, Michaelson questions one's motivation for affiliating as a Jew on anything but a religious platform, asking the difference between such affiliation and ethnocentrism. To whatever extent the national components of

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