What is the Jewish "problem”? Who needs a Jewish identity? What problem is it intended to solve and for whom?

In the modern era, the Christian world’s religious and historic discomfort with the existence of the Jew in its midst was given an infamous name—“the Jewish problem.” A key part of the discourse about “the problem” dealt with assigning identifying marks to the Jews and singling them out. One of the most prominent of the marks was that Jews lacked a rooted and distinct identity. From the Jewish perspective, “the Jewish problem” appeared at the same time as “Jewish identity,” but this time, identifying the Jews was not intended to help diagnose the problem but rather to solve it. The new term brought with it new questions and challenges. On the one hand, the very demand for Jewish identity is evidence of the internalization of the stereotype of the Jew as lacking an identity. On the other hand, the attempt to establish this identity requires a decision as to what may and may not be included in it.

We aim to open a discussion of the meaning of these problems, the connections between them, and the attempts to solve them. Among other issues, we will examine the connection between identifying the Jew as the other and the idealization of Jewish uniqueness. In contrast, we will consider the many attempts to solve the “problem” by means of “normalization” of the Jew and of Jewishness. From the current historical Jewish moment and its challenges, we will examine the various possibilities that may be covered by the label of “Jew,” possibilities that in the existing political and public climate are sometimes pushed to the margins or are beyond the field of vision. Thus we aim not only to address the problems of the past but also to problematize the present.