Religion or Nation? Modern Debates about Jewish Identity

Three-part series led by Leora Batnitzky exploring how and why modernity has forced Jews to define themselves either as a religion or a nation.

Leora Batnitzky

January 28, 2022

January 28, 2022

Leora Batnitzky

Leora Batnitzky is a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She is Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where she has been on the faculty since 1997. She has taught, as a visiting professor, at Tokyo University, Tel Aviv University, Radzyner IDC Law School, and Cardozo Law School and has also been a visiting researcher at NYU Law

Jewish Identity, Jewish Peoplehood, Judaism and Modernity, Ideas for Today, Hartman@Home, Video

Religion or Nation? Modern Debates about Jewish Identity

How and why has modernity forced Jews to define themselves either as a religion or a nation? Leora Batnitzky considers how emancipation in Europe and the subsequent rise of modern antisemitism shaped internal Jewish debates, Jewish conversion controversies in the 19th and 20th centuries, and present day debates about religious freedom and discrimination in America, which require attempts to classify Judaism in terms of either religion or nationality.

Session 1
Recorded on January 27, 2022

Session 2
Recorded on February 3, 2022

Session 3
Recorded on February 10, 2022

This series is part of Ideas for Today, a yearlong offering of curated courses led by leading scholars addressing the compelling contemporary Jewish issues of the day.

Religion or Nation? Modern Debates about Jewish Identity

Religion or Nation? Modern Debates about Jewish Identity

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