Christian and Jewish: Where Do We Draw the Line?

• In Event: Contested "Knowledge" in Contemporary Jewish Life

Abstract

The NJPS 2000 estimated about 800,000 adults who had a Jewish parent and identified as Christian by religion. The Pew Research Center’s 2013 "Portrait of Jewish Americans" study estimates over one million. This number has probably grown even greater since. The NJPS 2000 classified some as "Persons of Jewish Background" and most of them as non-Jews. Because they were classified as non-Jewish, the NJPS 2000 asked them only a few Jewish identity questions. The Pew Research Center’s 2013 "Portrait of Jewish Americans" study similarly classified them as "Jewish Background" and also did not count them as part of the Jewish population. Unlike NJPS, however, the Pew study did administer the full survey instrument to them.

Because of the historic tensions between Judaism and Christianity, the Jewish communal consensus is that Christians cannot be Jews, and there has been only the most minimal analysis of "Christian Jews." Using the NJPS 2000, Pew 2013 "Portrait of Jewish Americans" study, and the 2018 Denver Jewish Community Study, this paper examines demographic and attitudinal differences and similarities between Christian Jews, other Jews of mixed ancestry, and Jews of single ancestry to better understand what Christian identification means and its implications for a larger Jewish communal consensus.

Author

• Bruce A Phillips, Hebrew Union College-USC