What is Judaism?Is it a religion, a culture, a nation, a people, a system of

ethics, an ethnic group, a pre-requisite for making it as a successful comedian?

It’s a religion It’s an ethnicity

One God◦ Universal Creator◦ Specific God of Israel

System of ethical and ritual laws & practices

Sacred homelandSacred texts

◦ Torah and Hebrew Bible◦ Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah

HolidaysSacred narrative

(Moses, etc.)

Common language(s)Shared historyShared ritualsShared foodsShared humorShared roots in a

particular landSense of shared destinyShared physical

appearance attributes

Ashkenazi Jews (European descent)

Sephardi Jews (trace roots back to Spain)

Mizrahi Jews (Jews descending from the Middle East, North Africa, and Persian Gulf)

Ethiopian Jews

Sabras

Jews-by-choice

Jews adopted as children

“Judaism is an evolvingreligiouscivilization.”

Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan1881 - 1983

religioncuisine

homeland

art & literature

languages

history

culture

humor

Centers of Jewish civilization today

1,500,000

EUROPE

Jewish-Americans: population centers

Politics

Comedy

Hollywood

Different Ways of Analyzing or Surveying Contemporary American Jewish Cultures

By Movement/Philosophy

OrthodoxModern OrthodoxHarediChabadOther Hasidic Sects

Conservative

Reform

Reconstructionist

Renewal

Humanistic

Secular/Cultural

“Just Jewish”

How the movements differ

Beliefs about Torah & Sacred Texts

Beliefs about God

Authority of Jewish law (halakhah)

Who has authority to determine halakhic decisions or other decisions of ethics and ritual practice

Nature and purpose of the Jewish people

Ways of relating to modernity & the contemporary world

By Geographic Region

By Attitudes towards Israel

By Sub-ethnicity

By LGBT issues

By In-marriage/Intermarriage

By JBB or JBC