The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties

Shaye J. D. Cohen

1999

Jewishness, the conscious affirmation of the qualities that make Jews Jews, presumes a contrast between Us and Them. The Jews constitute an Us; all the rest of humanity, or, in Jewish language, the nations of the world, the gentiles, constitute a Them. Between Us and Them is a line, a boundary, drawn not in sand or stone but in the mind. The line…

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Creator Bio

Shaye J. D. Cohen

b. 1948

Shaye J. D. Cohen is professor of Hebrew literature and philosophy at Harvard University. Before 2001, Cohen was the Samuel Ungerleider Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. An ordained rabbi, writer, and editor, his numerous books and articles focus on boundaries between Jews and non-Jews and gender boundaries within Judaism.

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