What is a German Jew?

Answer 1

Each Answer may be based on a different definition of terms.

Answer 1

Jewish people are people of the Jewish religion and adhere to its rules, attitudes and traditions; so a German Jew is a person that is a citizen of Germany and is Jewish.

Answer 2

Any answer for a question regarding the definition of labels for people comes from the perspective of, and reflects the goals and needs of, the particular answerer. To me, the modern popular definition of Jew as relating to religion and practices is incompatible with a) the origin story of the Jewish race in the Holy Bible, b) how people have identified Jews in Europe and other parts of the world throughout history, c) the physical facts of the physical and physiognomic features of the Jew (if it is possible for someone to "look Jewish", then there is a Jewish race). To me, the answer "a German Jew is a person that is a citizen of Germany and is Jewish" is bowdlerized, blithely ahistorical (e.g., ignores the definition of Jew used by the National Socialists in The Holocaust), and displays an obvious, but feckless, desire to deny the racial distinction between Jews and Gentiles.

Jewish people (also Jews; Hebrews; Israelites) are a race that are the descendants of Abraham. Being a Jew is a matter of genealogy, of blood inheritance; and though the biological and biblical origins of the Jew are one and the same, a Jew is necessarily someone who has descended from Abraham, the nation (the people) of Israel. Their homeland is the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) as described in the Holy Bible. After several brutal wars against the Roman occupiers of Israel, in 135 CE the Romans used their superior military might to kill a huge number of Jews, and expel from Israel a large proportion (though certainly not all) of those that remained. This is thought of by some as a key juncture of The Jewish Diaspora (though this is not the first time that Jews had been expelled from Israel by foreign powers, or had left for other reasons). Some Jews ultimately ended up in the lands that came to be known as Germany (but for a long period were separate feudal states under the Holy Roman Empire, or various other confederations); these Jews have been called "German Jews" by some in the last century or so. This term is a conflation of the modern notion of national identity, which does not relate to race, and older and more fundamental notions of national identity, which depend strictly on race. German Jews are not German; they are Jews. Germans and Jews are distinct races.

Answer 3

1) Tens of thousands of Jews remained in Israel (Judea), chiefly in the Galilee area, after the Roman conquest. They were expelled from Jerusalem only. Israel lost most of its Jewish population over a period of centuries, but some thousands remained (see attached Link).

2) The diaspora began after the First Destruction 2500 years ago. See the other attached Related Link.

3) There have been German Jews for well over one thousand years. The first ones we know of were brought there by Charlemagne in the Eighth Century. Jewish literature (such as the Seder Rav Amram Gaon, 9th Century) documents them and their customs; and we have specific names from 1050 years ago (beginning with Rabbi Judah ben Meir Leon) and ever since.

4) For the purposes of the Question in its simple sense, both of the above answers seem disingenuous. The subject is not citizenship or modern-type nationality (nor ethnic origin); rather, it's one of birth and/or country of residence. Many tens of thousands of Jews have been born and lived in Germany for the last millenium.