Judaism = indigenous tribe, land-based practices tied to Israel
Source: Hen Mazzig, Senior Fellow at Tel Aviv Institute, Newsweek
Thousands of years of archaeological and historical evidence shows that Judaism and the beginnings of Jewish people, began in Judea—known today as the state of Israel. Through conquests and imperialism, ethnic Jews have been exiled from their ancestral homeland and subsequently settled in every corner of the world, from Eastern Europe to the Peruvian Amazon. The people who came from that place, what is today called Israel, are referred to, even by people who think we do not belong there, as Jews. Even adversaries like Hamas and Hezbollah do not dispute our right to call ourselves Jews—or, in Arabic, “Yahud” (“Yehuda” meaning Judea).
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Mahrinah von Schlegel, an indigenous advocate belonging to the Tewa people of the Northern Rio Grande Pueblos: “Judaism is a land-based agricultural religion. We have had a spiritual and stewardship relationship with the land of Israel since the beginning of our collective memory. Land relationships and stewardship is a critical foundation for any tribe’s indigeneity.”
Von Schlegel draws her definition of indigenous peoples from the United Nations, which defines the term as inheritors of unique cultures who have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. She noted how indigenous peoples have sought recognition of their identities, lifestyles and their right to ancestral lands throughout history, but their rights have continuously been violated by empires, nation-states and external colonial powers.
This is something to which any Jew over the past thousand years who has chanted “Next Year in Jerusalem!” at a Passover Seder can relate. “I will add that indigenous peoples must practice a land-based tribal religion,” said von Schlegel. “Whether Jews want to acknowledge it or not, our religious practice is both land-based and agrarian, additionally sharing our tribal history across a cyclical lunar calendar.”