Prior to the modern era (i.e. French Revolution), Jews were seen as a nationality without a land. They lived in any country by charter of the King and they had their own civil and criminal system when only Jews were involved. A Catholic living in England in the 18th Century took his civil dispute to the same court as a member of the Church of England. But two Jews in England at that time went to their own court because Jews were seen as a People without a Land but still a nationality.
This changed after the French Revolution when Napoleon called together 70 leading Rabbis and asked them 12 questions with the express purpose to clarify whether Jews saw themselves as being part of the Jewish religion or the Jewish nation. And he made it clear that while members of all religions could be French only French people could reside in France (He was afraid of the threat of a third front helping the enemies of France). These Rabbis gave Napoleon the answers he wanted to hear: We are a religion. 100 years later when it was clear that Emancipation had failed and Jews were not accepted as Frenchmen, a journalist named Herzl started the Zionist movement based on restoring the "national" dignity of the Jewish People.
This debate within Judaism as to what Jews are continues today. Personally, I like the answer of one Rabbi (Larry Hoffman) who says that Judaism is a conversation in which those who are Jewish know the lines (even the ones they disagree with) and that any other effort to characterize what Judaism is or is not is doomed to fail because Judaism does not fit exclusively into any one definition based on the available choices.
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Is Judaism a Race or Religion?
Prior to the modern era (i.e. French Revolution), Jews were seen as a nationality without a land. They lived in any country by charter of the King and they had their own civil and criminal system when only Jews were involved. A Catholic living in England in the 18th Century took his civil dispute to the same court as a member of the Church of England. But two Jews in England at that time went to their own court because Jews were seen as a People without a Land but still a nationality.
This changed after the French Revolution when Napoleon called together 70 leading Rabbis and asked them 12 questions with the express purpose to clarify whether Jews saw themselves as being part of the Jewish religion or the Jewish nation. And he made it clear that while members of all religions could be French only French people could reside in France (He was afraid of the threat of a third front helping the enemies of France). These Rabbis gave Napoleon the answers he wanted to hear: We are a religion. 100 years later when it was clear that Emancipation had failed and Jews were not accepted as Frenchmen, a journalist named Herzl started the Zionist movement based on restoring the "national" dignity of the Jewish People.
This debate within Judaism as to what Jews are continues today. Personally, I like the answer of one Rabbi (Larry Hoffman) who says that Judaism is a conversation in which those who are Jewish know the lines (even the ones they disagree with) and that any other effort to characterize what Judaism is or is not is doomed to fail because Judaism does not fit exclusively into any one definition based on the available choices.