So, in the light of these historical processes and the demographic make-up of the Jewish people, what are the significant factors shaping Jewish identity today, and how are we to interact with them in our task of Jewish evangelism? Traditional Jewish identities were shaped by two factors, geographical and religious affiliation. These defined what sort of a Jew you were in the light of your relationship with the non-Jewish world, and your relationship with other of Jews. The Sephardi-Ashkenazi distinction was both geographic and cultural, and was broken down into innumerable sub-groups such as Yekkes (Germany), Polaks (Poland), Litvaks (Lithuania), and so on. Religiously you were hasidim (pietist), misnagdim (formalist) or maskilim (modernist).

But Modernity and Postmodernity have caused the disintegration of traditional Jewish identities. There is now "no such thing as an un-hyphenated Jew", or, as Woody Allen put it, "IÕm Jewish- but with an explanation". Today Jewish identity must be re-defined continually, as the Jewish community itself exhibits an un-resolved identity crisis. Instead of taking Jewish identity for granted we will have to take it as something to be created (Sacks in Webber 1994: 116). We will consider six factors.

4.1 Population

The population loss of the Holocaust is being slowly replenished by the increased fertility rates of the Israeli population. The sustained birth rate in Israel and the continuing influx of a high proportion of young adults means that Israel will become the place where the majority of Jewish children are born and grow up. Their consciousness of Jewishness and Israeliness will be influenced by changes in Israel, and whilst a substantial minority of Jewish children will grow up in the Diaspora, the main educational and cultural institutions will be increasing focused in the land. Conversely, by 2020 about 70% of those over the age of 65 will live in the Diaspora.

Intermarriage rates in the Diaspora vary between 40-70%, but it is hard to quantify the effects of intermarriage in terms of the identity of the children of such marriages. The National Jewish Population Survey in the USA (1990) reported that of the children of mixed marriages 28% identified as Jewish, 41% non-Jewish, and 31% dual or non-committal, leaving room for a variety of possible influencing factors in the development of Jewish identity. The survey also showed that of the 5.5 million who identified as Jews, 1.1 million admitted no religion or "another religion". A further 185,000 identified themselves as "Jews by choice", who will make up an increasing proportion of Reform Congregations, and who express a religious identity without necessarily adopting an ethnic identity as Jews.

4.2 Geography Diaspora/Israel Immigration

Migration is a continuing factor in the formation of identity. Between 1880-1948 some 4 million Jews emigrated between continents, and another 4 million since 1948. The most recent wave of immigration will have significant impact on Israeli identity for some considerable time to come, creating Russian-Israeli identity and the re-drawing the cultural and political map of Israel. Immigration is the result of complex political and economic factors, and the majority of Jewish emigration is a result of "push" factors. The suppression of Jewish religious and political identity of many CIS immigrants places high demands on IsraelÕs ability to absorb this recent aliyah, and gives significant opportunities for witness.

4.3 Politics

Israeli Jewish identity is affected by the inter-Jewish cleavages expressed in economic, class and cultural differences of the different immigrant groups. The Ashkenazi and Sephardi contingents are further sub-divided. Such differences form a composite Israeli identity. In addition, Israel Arabs making up 18% of the population, 90% of whom live in three Arab areas, will be increasingly involved in the definition of Israeli ethnicity. How the Peace process will be resolved is not know, but in political terms Israeli society has the capacity for increasing division on the issue. The localised ethnic tensions in the region are also affected by the global political factors, and as the Jewish centre expands and the Diaspora declines it is possible that Jewish identity will be affected again by antisemitism.

4.4 Religion

The collapse of traditional religion as the sole legitimate criterion of Jewishness, its replacement by secular forms of Jewish ethnicity, has lead to competing and separate Jewish identities in the land. It would be superficial to label these secular and religious, as these mask other political and economic factors, and are part of the whole debate as to the nature of the State itself. The various groupings of .haredim (Ultra-orthodox) oppose the Zionist program, seeing life in Israel as one of Exile, yet as a reactionary group they must seek to live within the secular political processes, as well as hope to dominate them. The identity they offer is a reaction against modernity, and a desire to reverse it.

4.5 Postmodernity

Whilst the reaction to modernity continues, we should notice the effects of Postmodernity on Jewish identity. Generation X and Y Jews in the Diaspora, have been opting for new expressions of Jewish identity that traditional Jews of a previous generations may find unpalatable. They offer a mix of pluralism, multiculturalism and postmodern thought that allows radical re-definitions of what it means to be Jewish. The Internet culture of web-sites and cyber-cafés offers new understanding of Jewish identity, and the discussion of, for example, the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network re-works old formulations of Jewish identity in creative response to postmodern thought.

4.6 Messiah/Messianic movement

The Messianic movement poses a challenge to the nature of Jewish identity, and is itself challenged by it. As we have seen, those who assert a religious base for Jewish identity will continue to view us as apostates or worse. The Messianic movement is used by them to define the boundary markers of what is a legitimate identity.

But at a deeper level, Messianic Jews have the opportunity to show that they have a deeper and more authentic identity as Jews, based on the biblical understanding of Israel and the Messiah. As the recent study by Carol Harris-Shapiro claims, Messianic Jews have to be "double supercessionists", showing that they are more Jewish than the Jews, and more Christian than the Christians. How Messianic Jews balance these two often conflicting identities, and how we as evangelists encourage Jewish people to see this, I leave to our discussion. But the shaping of Jewish identity today would not be complete without considering the effects of coming to know the Messiah