When Non-Jews Define Judaism for Jews: Alyza Lewin on Reclaiming Jewish Peoplehood in an Age of Intimidation (274)

There is a fundamental mistake that many people still make about Jews: they see Judaism exclusively as a faith, so they assume Jewish needs are basically religious accommodations, kosher food, holiday absences, maybe a space to pray.

But my guest today, attorney Alyza Lewin, argues that if that’s your starting point, you completely misunderstand the nature of Judaism, and what Jews are experiencing across the world. Because what we are watching on campuses, on Bondi Beach, and in the international vilification of Israel is the vilification and targeting of Jews as a people, on the basis of peoplehood, ancestral heritage, and our connection to the Land of Israel  - even though those who do so may not publicly acknowledge that this is their philosophy of Judaism.

And that itself is part of the problem: people who are not Jewish who think that they can decide the definition of Judaism and Jewishness. This is a process that is happening now, but its antisemitic roots go back 800 years.

That is part of why the chants and the intimidation land the way they do, and why the world’s inability to even recognize the nature of the attack has left so many Jews feeling isolated.

Strangely enough, Alyza argues that despite the pain, there is a silver lining: namely, the reinvigoration of Jewish identity, and faith in God, among many of those who, until October 7th, gave very little thought to their Jewish heritage.

So in this conversation, we address a series of very practical questions, rather than dealing with antisemitism in the abstract. We ask how, in a society with broad legal protections for free speech, we should deal with the huge grey zone where speech has consequences the law may not address.

How do we distinguish good faith political debate from the vilification of Jews, especially when universities watched this for years and still misread it as a normal dialogue?

What should Jewish students do when activists demand that they shed Jewish peoplehood and connection to Israel in order to be accepted, and why does Alyza insist the answer is not to take the bait, but to say clearly: you have no right to tell me what it means to be Jewish?

Should we retire the term Zionism, or reclaim it?

And crucially, we also tackle one of the most emotionally charged pairings in today’s discourse: antisemitism and Islamophobia, and how that framing often shapes, and sometimes distorts, the conversation in the public square.

Ultimately, we are dealing with reinvigoration of Jewish peoplehood. Because if we do not name Jewish peoplehood clearly, we will keep losing the argument before it even begins.

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