Word: peoplehood
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...making the point that in Jewish religion, it is not membership in a synagogue that defines the religious affiliation or originates it or exhausts it. Jewish religion and Jewish peoplehood are inseparable. The synagogue is merely one of the agencies of the Jewish community. Jewish identity is gained at birth...
While more liberal Jews are willing to search for the common denominator of faith within a broader idea of Jewish peoplehood, the Orthodox are more demanding: faith must come first, peoplehood second. Indeed, for the strict est Orthodox, their rigidly sectarian faith actually separates them from other Jews. Even so, the basic Orthodox concept of Jewish identification is far healthier today than was expected just a few decades ago. Now it is burgeoning, partly because the melting pot is passe, but also partly because the Orthodox birth rate is unusually high...