Question

The historian Raymond Scheindlin was quoted as saying that "the Jewish people and the Jewish religion are not at all the same thing, certainly not in modern times." What implications does this statement have for understanding Jewish culture and Judaism, as well as Jewish music? By extension, what questions and issues does it raise in relation to the identities, cultures, and music of peoples who practice other religious faiths: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism?

Answer 1

In this passage, the historian tells us that in modern times, the Jewish people and the Jewish religion should not be equated. What this means is that not all people who identify as Jewish also follow the religion. Being Jewish is also understood as a cultural and ethnic identity, related to the music, habits, way of thinking and way of living of the Jewish people.

It is unclear to what extent this can be applied to other religions. In some cases, such as Islam, the culture and the way of living of the people is closely related to their religion. Therefore, Muslim culture is often used as an equivalent of Middle Eastern culture. In other cases, such as Christianity, a religion is followed by so many different people, the cultural traits are not as significant. Although this more debatable in the case of smaller groups of people (such as Catholic Irish, American evangelists, etc.).

Answer 2

Judaism is an ethnic religion. In modern times, many Jewish people adhere to the Jewish culture and traditions but not necessarily to the Jewish faith. Jewish music can be divided into sacred music and secular music, and it is more culturally varied than the music of universal religions, like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, which do not present a strong secular cultural branch.

Step-by-step explanation:

The term Judaism refers to the religion, tradition, and culture of the Jewish people. Historically, it is the oldest of the three monotheistic religions, a group that includes Christianity and Islam, originated in the Middle East and derived from the first, called "Abraham religions". It is considered an ethnic religion because it constitutes one of the strongest aspects of belonging to the Jewish people as well as traditions, cultural, social, and linguistic practices. Until the 18th century, the words "Jewish" and "Judaism" were practically synonymous. However, the arrival of the Haskala (Jewish illustration) meant a radical change in the mentality of many Jews who saw themselves as members of the same people but separated from the traditional adherence to the Jewish faith. In this sense, Judaism refers both to a religion and to an ethnic group with its own cultural, traditional, and linguistic bonds, being Hebrew its main language. For that reason, some Jewish people do not follow the beliefs of Judaism but still are Jewish, since they were born and raised into their ethnic and cultural community.

However, the Jewish people are culturally and ethnically very diverse. Since the Jewish diaspora, many groups of Hebrews inhabited and assimilated cultural and ethnic aspects of different regions of the Middle East, Europe, and North-Africa. Therefore, ethnic groups within the Jewish people emerged, like the Sephardi in Spain, the Ashkenazim in central Europe and the Mizrahi in the Middle East, each one with its musical, linguistic, and cultural trend.

As an ethnic religion that is confined to a specific ethnic group, Judaism is not a universal religion. A universal religion is a religious creed that is open to all human beings in the world regardless of their ethnic, cultural, racial, national, geographical or political origin. Examples of universal religions are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, which actively seek to expand their beliefs throughout the world and to convert as many people as possible. On the other hand, traditional Hinduism is more similar to Judaism because it is not a universal religion either, instead, it is confined to the people of the Indian subcontinent.

Jewish music can be divided into sacred music and secular music, the latter being very influenced by diverse cultures that the Jewish people have entered into contact with through centuries. One possible issue that arises when comparing Judaism with universal religions, like Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, is the fact that Jewish music and culture is so varied and rich for an ethnic religion, while universal religions, which tend to connect people from different cultures, have, in a certain way, more rigid and homogeneous cultural and music traditions.