Jewish peoplehood

Jewish peoplehood (Hebrew: עמיות יהודית, Amiut Yehudit) is the conception of the awareness of the underlying unity that makes an individual a part of the Jewish people.^[1]

The concept of peoplehood has a double meaning. The first is descriptive, as a concept factually describing the existence of the Jews as a people, i.e., a national ethnoreligious indigenous group. The second is normative, as a value that describes the feeling of belonging and commitment to the Jewish people.^[2]

The concept of Jewish peoplehood is a paradigm shift for some in Jewish life. Insisting that the mainstream of Jewish life is focused on Jewish nationalism (Zionism), they argue that Jewish life should instead focus on Jewish peoplehood, however the majority of Jews see peoplehood as encompassing both Jews living inside Israel and outside in diaspora.^[3]

The concept of peoplehood, or "Klal Yisrael" has permeated Jewish life for millennia, and to focus on it does not constitute a shift from the focus on Jewish nationhood. Jews have been extremely effective in sustaining a sense of joint responsibility towards their people and its members for over 2,000 years, since their displacement by the Romans, subsequent enslavement, dispersal as a refugee community throughout the world, and subsequent return to their homeland in 1948.^[4]

The concepts of Jews as a nation and as a peoplehood are not necessarily at odds with one another. The very concept of defining Jews as a people or civilization is historically accurate, and suggests a wide variety of values within the context of Judaism also.^[5]