Anthropologists use the term "ethnogenesis" to describe how a people comes into existence. Both the tradition handed down by those inside the group (emics) and the historical processes observed by those outside (etics) are important in understanding the origins of Jewish identity. Jewish tradition may or may not always be historically accurate, but tradition nevertheless has the function of authenticating contemporary Jewish identity. There have been significant historical stages or "paradigm shifts"(1) in Jewish history which continue to affect Jewish identity today. Let us briefly consider some of the major historical stages of Jewish identity formation.(2)

2.1 Covenant

The experience of Covenant was most formative in the development of Jewish identity, fusing inseparably the ethnic and religious components of the Hebrews. GodÕs covenant with Abraham is renewed with his offspring, Isaac and Jacob, confirmed in the Exodus from Egypt, and made specific in the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. It validates theologically the existence a newly-formed socio-political entity, Israel. The story of the Exodus provides the basis for a metanarrative, a salvation-history of redemption from slavery, that will be re-enacted each Passover to remind the Jewish people of their origin, calling and destiny. The necessary building blocks for ethnic identity formation - land, language, people and religion (or in traditional terms, God, Torah and Israel) coalesce to form an ethnic identity strong enough to endure the next three millennia.

2.2 Settlement

The second phase in the development of Jewish identity occurs between 1250 and 500 b.c.e in the land of Canaan. Settlement brings statehood and responsibility to the Jewish people. It begins with military and ideological conquest. In its efforts to survive against the other inhabitants of the land Israelite society develops from a loose-knit egalitarian confederation of often disunited tribes to a consolidated empire with economic, religious and political strength. But the monarchy fails to provide justice and mercy, the kingdom is divided, the Northern ten tribes are lost, Judah is sent into exile, the Temple is destroyed. The disaster is recognised as the judgement Israel deserved and a fitting punishment for her apostasy.

Yet amazingly a return to the land and a rebuilding of the Temple takes place, giving renewed hopes for a Messianic transformation. The history of the people is recorded, edited and transmitted, strengthening identity to face the challenges of survival against the backdrop of new cultures and empires on the horizon.

The settlement period contains the matrix by which future experiences of exile will be understood. The pattern of promise, fulfilment, destruction and rebuilding is laid down in the scriptures which are compiled in Babylon. The plot of exile and return becomes what in Jacob NeusnerÕs words is a "self-fulfilling prophecy" that is still operative today in both secular and religious Jewish thought.

2.3 Rabbinism

The third period of identity formation from roughly 500 b.c.e to 500 c.e saw the development of the synagogue as the basis for Jewish communal life. The encounter with Greece and Rome led to the scattering and splintering of Jewish people geographically, culturally, philosophically and theologically. A variety of Judaisms were available at the time of YÕshua, but after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 c.e. and the failure of the Bar KokhbaÕs revolt in 135 all other expressions of Jewish identity were gradually subsumed into Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Christianity. Jewish life was re-defined in the light of the destruction of the Temple, the loss of the State, and existence in a hostile Diaspora. By the time of the completion of the Talmud the Rabbis had formalised in liturgy and law-code the life of the people, articulating the religious dimension of every aspect of personal and social life. Now outside the land, they have sufficient resources for identity-definition and maintenance without the need for territory or Temple.

2.4 Diaspora

Diaspora existence over the next thirteen centuries under Islam and Christianity further shaped Jewish identity. Patterns of persecution, both sporadic and systematic, made Jewish inner communal life culturally rich in response to external hardship. The identity of the Jew as "alien" and "other" was re-inforced in Christian and Muslim contexts, and internalised in Jewish self-understanding. The religion is systematised into codes, often borrowed from the philosophical and cultural forms of host nations. The Jewish instinct for survival as a pariah people on the fringes of medieval Europe leads to increased communal organisation and solidarity, and finds solace in mysticism and messianic expectation.

2.5 Emancipation

As the dawn of the enlightenment broke over Europe, the authority of the church gave way to the secular state, the rise of science challenged the power of tradition, and the individual became an autonomous being rather than an obedient subject. For the Jewish people this meant emancipation, political equality, educational and commercial opportunity, and encounter with new knowledge. Whilst emancipation did not come at the same rate to all the Jewish world, a wave of intellectual change swept through the Jewish communities of Europe, and into the New World. Haskalah brought the development of modern forms of Judaism. The enlightenment project, as it has been called, brought Cartesian individualism into the community. "The startling effects of this fundamental shiftÉcannot be overemphasised. Freedom from segregated existence brought on a transition from a life oriented by revelation, tradition, and a sense of the holy to one in which religion became privatised if not irrelevant or obsolete." (Borowitz 1991:3)

The nature of Jewish identity became increasingly problematic and confused, whilst Jewish survival was threatened not just by antisemitism, but invitation to assimilate into wider society. A variety of approaches were developed to maintain Jewish life in the context of modernity, which has led to the spectrum of different Jewish identities available today. Modernisation, especially in the USA, brought the Jewish community access to resources and freedom to develop. Education, cultural creativity, economic expansion and political activity replaced observance of the Torah in the quest for the Messianic age. The Pittsburgh platform of Reform Judaism in 1885 rejected all the laws which were not "adapted to the views and habits of modern civilisation" asserting that the Jews were no longer a nation but a religious community. As secularism and modernity fuelled the changes in Jewish identity, the Zionist project became a potent political force, which would come to fruition after the Holocaust in the founding of the State of Israel. As we are well aware, these are the two most significant events to have affected the Jewish people, and their impact on Jewish identity continues to be most significant. We will understand how by observing the demographic impact of these two events.

2.6 Postmodernity

With the founding of the State of Israel and in the aftermath of the Second World War Jewish identity has entered a period that Eugene Borowitz called "post-Holocaust disillusionment". Religious identity has become privatised, symbolic and a matter of personal choice. In the light of secularisation the Jewish community has developed institutions for communal life which do not require a religious basis, and Jewish identity is no longer required to have a primary religious component. A symbolic religious identity is observed, but the current of much contemporary Jewish identity is not religious.

The definition of the Jewishness of the family in terms of biology (or halakhah) is becoming less important for American Jews than it was in the past and less relevant to Jewish communal continuity than how people define themselves behaviourally, communally, and culturally, and how the community defines them. (Goldscheider in Sacks 1993:13)

We will outline the effect of some key factors of the postmodern condition in which Jewish identity must be expressed presently, but first we need to consider the demographic situation