Judaim Response Paper

Judaism is a monotheistic religion with loosely organized set of beliefs that dictate the way Jewish people should lead their lives and what G-d expects of them. While these beliefs are certainty interpreted differently by different branches of Judaism and by different individuals there still is a core set of beliefs. The idea of separating culture from religion is very difficult. Many people who consider themselves “secular Jews” or those who do not belong to any synagogue still observe key Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover. Many of these secular or cultural Jews feel connected to their Jewish heritage though ancestors, community, language or food.
However this is not to say that practicing or religious Jews do not also feel connected to Judaism for the same reasons. Because of the grey area between culture and religion in Judaism it is safe to say Judaism is primarily a religion, but still a combination of religion and culture.
Judaism is many things, but a race or ethnicity is not one of them. One could argue that all Jews have a common ancestor or homeland. If this is true then Christians and Muslims would all belong to the Jewish race because all three trace their beginnings to Abraham. Additionally, if a person considered themselves a part of the so called Jewish race then they would be implicitly implying that they acknowledge being either culturally or religiously Jewish or else they could not consider themselves to be Jewish at all.