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Is Judaism a Religion?

Answered by Rabbi Ephraim NisenbaumFurther responses from Rabbi Eliahu Levenson

Question

If you had to defend that Judaism is a religion and not a people what would be your main points of discussion? Also, is there anywhere in the Torah that would defend this argument?

Answer

Shalom. The truth is that Judaism is not merely a religion.

Let’s examine it: A religion is defined as a belief. A Christian who does not believe in Jesus is not a Christian, because Christianity is a religion. A person who is born to a Jewish mother, however, is considered a Jew regardless of his belief. A Jew cannot convert out of Judaism, once a Jew always a Jew. On the other hand, what exactly is a “people”? A nationality? A nationality is generally defined by people sharing a common geographic area and culture. Jews are spread throughout the world, and for almost 2,000 years had no homeland so to speak. Their cultures often mirror their host countries, and very little, insofar as a culture concerns, unites them. A Jew really defies classification. A Jew is really nothing more than the Torah’s defintion–a person either born to a Jewish mother or one who converts properly to Judaism. This places responsibilities upon him or her, of course, but the title Jew remains regardless of whether the person fulfills those responsibilities. I hope this is helpful, though it’s not exactly what you requested!

Rabbi Ephraim Nisenbaum
Cleveland, OH

Follow-up question

Question

Thank you very much for your clarification on the question of what it means to be Jewish. You are probably aware that your view differs from other opinions that I have heard from orthodox Jews. Of what branch of Judaism are you? Particularly interesting is your claim that a Jew is unable to become non-Jewish.

Answer

I am aware that some orthodox Jews are of the opinion that one can stop being Jewish. I don’t think what they are saying can be understood on a superficial level, it is something much deeper. After all, as I said, no one would disagree that a child from a Jewish women, even if she supposedly converted to Christianity, is born a Jewish child. Since by definition a born Jewish child has a Jewish mother, can one really say that the mother was not Jewish?

On top of this, there is a long a complicated procedure that a non-Jew must go through if he wishes to convert to Judaism. If this Jew who converted to Christianity now wants to renounce the Christianity and come back to Judaism, would he/she have to go through this long and complicated conversion procedure? Absolutely not.

Ergo, anyone who wants to tell me that a Jew who converts to Christianity is no longer Jewish is going to have to overcome my points in explaining to me what they mean…unless they mean something slightly different than how it sounds…which I think is the case.

Regards, Eliahu Levenson