Jewish Coexistence: Past, Present and Future

抄録

The author tried to feature the contrast of the notion of coexistence in view of the historical development of Jewish nation; there is the sharp delineation between the Medieval to the pre-modern type and the modern notion. In the medieval Age Jews were always a religious national minority anywhere, in which they were looked upon as an alien nation. Contrary to that, as the result of the development of secularized society and the establishment of sovereign state, modern Jews have defined themselves as of two different identities: whereas Jew means religious belonging to Judaism, the same person is a citizen of a nation-state on the one hand and Israeli Jew as a nationality with some kind of Jewish identity on the other. The former has necessarily assimilated to some extent to the culture to which they belong. In this case their principal allegiance is attached to the country. Compared with this, Jewish identity of Israeli Jew is apt to be complicated and confounded, because Jewish coexistence tends to be varied according to the multi-layered cultural pluralism in Israeli society. Therefore, the issue of coexistence in Israel has come to the fore in the present and in future as well.