< Wikipedia:AI or not quiz Jewish Peoplehood (Hebrew: עמיות יהודית, Amiut Yehudit) - the awareness of the underlying unity that makes the individual a part of the Jewish people. ${ }^{[1]}$
The concept of Peoplehood has a double meaning. The first is descriptive, as a concept factually describing the existence of the Jews as a people. The second is normative, as a value that describes the feeling of belonging and commitment to the Jewish people. [2]
This is a dramatic paradigm shift in Jewish life, which is gaining increasing support within Jewish communities worldwide. This shift, from the classic Zionistic, Israeli-centered paradigm toward a more People-centric paradigm, a Peoplehood paradigm, call to put the Jewish People in the center and to ensure that the Jewish People, wherever its daughters and sons reside, maintains strong links to and with its nation-state, the State of Israel. ${ }^{\text {[3] }}$
Jews have been extremely effective in sustaining for over 2.000 years a sense of joint responsibility towards their people and its members. While the current reality seems very different than any prior time in Jewish History, part of the Jewish legacy is that of adapting to changing circumstances. ${ }^{[4]}$
The idea of the existence of a distinctive Jewish people or Peoplehood is biblical in its origin. Throughout the Torah, Prophets and Writings, Jews are variously referred to as a congregation, a nation, children of Israel or even a kingdom, all implying a connection among people. [5] “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you, and to your seed after you”. Genesis 17:7/8 ${ }^{[6]}$ “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people”. Esther 3:8 ${ }^{\text {[7] }}$ “In each generation every individual should feel as thou he or she had actually been redeemed from Egypt”. The Haggadah ${ }^{[8]}$ “Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh” - “All Israel are sureties for one another”. Talmud Shevuot 39a [9]
The first significant use of the Peoplehood concept was by Mordecai Kaplan, one of the most prominent Jewish thinkers of the XX century, who was searching for a term that would enable him to describe the complex nature of Jewish belonging. Once the State of Israel was founded, he rejected the concept of nationhood as it had become too closely identified with statehood, and replaced it with the Peoplehood concept. $\underline{10]}$
Kaplan’s innovative definition of Judaism as “an evolving religious civilization” illumines his understanding of the centrality of Peoplehood in the Jewish religion.
Describing Judaism as a religious civilization signifies the fact that the Jewish people have consciously sought throughout their history “to make its collective experience yield meaning for the enrichment of the life of the individual Jew and for the spiritual greatness of the Jewish people”. The civilizational definition also makes possible the acceptance by Judaism of the principles of unity in diversity and continuity in change. It is moreover a reminder of the fact that Judaism consists of much that cannot be pigeonholed into the category of religion in modern times, “paradoxical as it may sound, the spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people demands that religion cease to be its sole preoccupation.”[11] In the sense that existence precedes essence and life takes precedence over thought, Judaism exists for the sake of the Jewish people rather than the Jewish people existing for the sake of Judaism. ${ }^{[12]}$
Kaplan’s purpose in developing the Jewish Peoplehood idea was to create a vision broad enough to include everyone who identified as a Jew regardless of one’s approach to that identity. $\underline{[13]}$
The intensive use by Jewish organizations of the Peoplehood concept and intellectual interest in the topic began in 2000. Major organizations such as the Jewish Federations of North America, the JFNA New York Federation, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Israel Ministry for Education, the Diaspora Museum, the Avi Chai Foundation, the American Jewish Committee and many other smaller organizations are either introducing the Peoplehood concept as an organizing principle in their organizations or initiating high profile programming with an explicit focus on Jewish Peoplehood. [14]
Alongside the use of the Peoplehood concept by Jewish organizations, there is a parallel growth of intellectual interest in the topic since 2000. The intellectual discussion asks: What is “Jewish Peoplehood”? What are the key characteristics that distinguish Jewish Peoplehood from other concepts? $\underline{[15]}$
The areas of agreement between Jewish intellectuals writing about the concept of Jewish Peoplehood point to three principles:
The three unifying principles of the Jewish Peoplehood theory: