The dispute about Jewish identity is as old as the hills . The question of “ who is a Jew ? " was posed in antiquity , during the Middle Ages and beyond . It seems that over the past 250 years ( what we might call the modern age ) this question has become even more complicated and more complex than in the past . Modernization , secularization , massive emigration , the fall of imperialism , the triumph of capitalism , the appearance of nationalism , Zionism , the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel have all impacted on this question . The 34 scholars whose research appears in these pages have tried to deal with various aspects of the question of Jewish identity : each from their own point of view and their own research methodology . Not only has the question not been resolved but , rather , reading these articles further deepens the complexity and the wonderment – and this is a good thing . This is the first of several anthologies , the purpose of which is to speculate ab...
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