Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro: Is Judaism a Nationality?

Why has it become so hard to define a Jew nowadays? Ethnicity, race, religion? Part of the reason is Zionism, which attempted to erase the traditional Jewish identity and replace it with its own nationalistic one. But it failed to come up with a logically consistent new identity for the Jewish people, leaving those who chose to adopt the Zionist narrative of Jewishness confused with an undefined and indeterminable Jewish self-image. I presented this lecture at the 3-day Faith, Community and Culture conference in Kewlona, British Colombia, sponsored by ICMES (International Council for Middle East Studies, Washington DC. ) with the collaboration of the of University of British Columbia, Okanagan, at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at the Kelowna Airport in BC. Other speakers included ICMES members Issam Saliba (Library of Congress, USA), Professor Gloria Morán (University of Coruña, Spain), Don Wallace (Board Chair), and Dr. Norton Mezvinsky (President), as well as Professors David Goa (University of Alberta), Emilio González Ferrín (University of Seville, Spain), Francisco Peña (University of British Columbia), Hussein Keshani (University of British Columbia), and Professor Jessica Stites More (University of British Columbia).