HEBREW, ISRAEL or JEW; WHAT DO WE CALL OURSELVES?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

When I was growing up in Turkey, the locals had two different terms for us. They called us either YAHUDI (of Judah) or MUSEVI (of Moses). The first was pejorative, the second more respectful.

What do we call ourselves?

HEBREW: This is the earliest term. According to the Hebrew Bible, Abraham was the first one to be called “a Hebrew” (Gen. 14:13). The etymology of this term is disputed. The word most likely has to do with being “on the other side”, maybe referring to the other side of the river Euphrates, namely, Canaan.

ISRAEL: According to the Hebrew Bible, the patriarch Jacob became known as Israel, after he wrestled with a mysterious “ man” (Gen. 32: 29). The word Israel probably comes from the root SARA, meaning, to persist, to persevere, to supplant (Hos.12: 4). After the split of the kingdom following the death of king Solomon (10^th cent. BCE), the northern tribes became known as Israel, and the people were referred to as Bene Yisrael, “the children of Israel.” Today the term “Israel” primarily refers to the land of Israel.

JEW: Judah (Yehuda, in Hebrew) was the 4^th son of Leah. The term referred to the southern kingdom, centered in Jerusalem. The term Jew (Yehudi, in Hebrew) was first applied to those whom King Rezin of Aram drove away from Elath (II K 16: 6, 8^th cent. BCE ). In Akkadian, King Sennacherib of Assyria  (704-681 BCE) called king Hezekiah “the Jew” (amel-ya-hu-d-ai). After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, it became the only term used to identify the people who lived there and its vicinity. The Book of Zechariah (6^th cent. BCE) refers to “every Jew”- ish yehudi (8:23) . In the Book of Esther (2^nd cent. BCE), Mordecai is called “a Jew”- ish yehudi (2:5). And that is the term we use for ourselves. In French, it is Juif; in Spanish, Judio; in Ladino, cudyo, in German, Jude,  but in Italian, it is ebreo.

Now ,with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1947, we have two terms: Israeli and Jew. The first refers to a citizen of Israel, whether a Jew or not. The second refers to all those who live around the world and are part of the Jewish people.

SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com