In an online discussion group yesterday, I angered some zionists (again) when I said that Judaism is not an ethnicity, but an Abrahamic religion, just like Christianity and Islam, and just because Theodore Herzl and his ilk sought to turn Judaism into a "nation" or "ethnicity" doesn't make it one.
I think it's a bit risky to define the entire concept of "ethnicity" for humanity as a reaction to a specific thread of Zionist thinking.
The definition of "ethnicity" is not the same in all cultures or in all contexts.
Maybe it's "risky" in the western world, but it's not in much of the non-western world, especially in Africa. "Ethnicity" or "ethnic group" in this context, refers to a group or subgroup of people who share a common cultural background or DESCENT. In Africa, we also refer to ethnic groups as tribes.
Yes. As I said, definitions of ethnicity are context dependent.
I'm saying your definition may work in your context but not for people elsewhere in the world.
In "my" context? Well, there's actual literature to back up everything I said. Also, the concept of "ethnicity" or "ethnic group" in this context, has the same definition in Cultural Anthropology - look it up. From the Ainu in Japan, to the Quechua, or the Zulu, or the Igbo or the Yoruba, etc.
Also, you don't have to take my word for it. Read 'The Empty Wagon: Zionism's Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft' by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro. He might shed some light on the topic. And he's a Rabbi in the Judaism faith.
Finally, it's not my fault that white people invented the concept of "race" and in so doing, hid the knowledge of the concept of "ethnicity" (in the non-western world) from the West.
Or that a bunch of white folks decided to take an Abrahamic religion, turn it into an "ethnic group" and nationalistic movement, and then build an oppressive ETHNO STATE based on it.
Nobody is faulting you for anything. But your concept of ethnicity is not universal, and trying to insist that it is really is not a good critique of Zionism.
Ethnicity is always constructed, so critiquing a certain construction of Jewish ethnicity and the values inherent in that construction is legitimate. Saying someone else's ethnicity *doesn't exist at all* is, frankly, overreach for anyone.
I also don't have to take any one Jewish person's word for it, since, as I have been gently reminded by Jewish people during my life, there is no such thing as Jewish consensus.
If I were to read this book, I would have to keep in mind longstanding tensions between religious Jews and secular Jews and the way religious Jews have often tried to define Judaism in ways that nullify secular Jews' self-identification as Jews.
It's not anyone's place to decide anything for others, but when this particular topic is used as the basis for an ethno state, especially one that's been committing a genocide for decades, then it's my and every progressive person's duty to speak out on it. As for you, please do as you please. ๐๐พโฅ๏ธ
Just because it's being used as a basis for atrocity doesn't mean it does not exist. Many things that are real to many people are used as justification for horrible things.
Well, Judaism is a religion, so I kinda respect the voices of countless Jewish religious teachers who have for years spoken on the matter. It's the same way I'd go to an Imam if I wanna learn more about Islam, or to a priest if I wanna learn more about Catholicism, etc. So that's it for me.
Again, *you* are defining Jewishness as a religion only, and many Jewish people have not defined it this way, entirely apart from and pre-existing anything involving Zionism.
Cultural anthropology does not hold one definition of "ethnicity". "Ethnicity" is a socially constructed concept that does not always mean the same thing and is extremely variable, and enforcing one concept onto all people is, generally, not a good thing to do.
I am not arguing that ethnicity and ethno-nationalism have been put to evil ends in Zionism.
I'm saying your desire to impose one concept of ethnicity onto everyone on earth is bizarre.
In particular, it discredits many diasporic people's construction of their ethnicities, and there are many other diasporic people besides Jewish people.
