Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Jews as an Ethnic or Even Racial Group:
A reader writes:
I was offended by the way Blunkett, and, for that matter, you,
glided over the concept that Judaism is a racial characteristic.
Jews are not a race, any more than Anglicans or Catholics. Part of
the persistence of anti-semitism lies in the thoughtless assumption
that there is a race of people known as Jews, instead of a
collection of individuals who have certain beliefs.
Well, everyone has a perfect right to be offended by whatever they
please. Nonetheless, as I noted in my post, Jews are an ethnic group,
though Judaism is also a religion. People can be ethnically Jewish
though irreligious -- many Jews are.
Certainly many anti-Semites hate Jews without regard to their
religion; the Nazis went after the irreligious Jews as well as the
devout Jews, and so did the Soviets. Much anti-Semitic propaganda
focuses on Jews' supposed ethnic or cultural traits, not their
religion. Nor is this just an anti-Semitic view; as I understand
mainstream Jewish religious teachings, someone whose mother is Jewish,
which is to say generally someone who is ethnically Jewish, is
"Jewish" for purposes of Judaism even if he is an atheist.
I realize that there's some fuzziness about the definition of
"ethnicity" (it usually turns on people's descent, but descendants of
converts to Judaism may often be treated as ethnically Jewish, just as
descendants of people who moved to Ireland not long ago may often be
treated as ethnically Irish -- especially when the descendants are now
not in Ireland in any more, and especially if they characterize
themselves as Irish). But there's also fuzziness about what
constitutes "race." Suffice it to say that an ethnic group is a group
that's usually linked by descent and culture, and that perceived
itself and is perceived by others as an ethnic group. We need not
delve further into this here, except to say that Jews are often
treated as an ethnic group much as are Irish, Poles, Gypsies, and so
on.
I prefer to use the term "ethnicity" rather than "race" to refer to
Jews. Historically, however, the term "race" has also included what we
now think of as ethnicity, so Jews, Italians, Irish, and such were
sometimes called "races" rather than just ethnic groups (see [1]here).
I inferred from the article in the English newspaper that U.K.
"incitement of race hatred" law either explicitly applies both to
races and ethnic groups (Jews, Irish, and the like), or applies to
races but with "race" interpreted -- as [2]one important old U.S.
statute is interpreted -- to include ethnic groups.
References
1. http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~volokh/ccri.htm#61
2. http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~volokh/ccri.htm#61
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