On July 7th, Professor and Brandeis Center Academic Advisory Board Member Lesley Klaff and Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder continued the Brandeis Center’s Summer Speaker Series with a discussion about “Law and Jewish Identity.” Klaff and Goldfeder provided insightful legal analyses as part of a discussion about two age-old questions with regard to Jewish identity: are Jews a religious group or an ethnic group? And, is Zionism an inherent Jewish value? Klaff kicked off the webinar by explaining the legal framework in the UK that protects Jews from discrimination on the basis of race and religion. She first addressed the Race Relations Act of 1976, which made it unlawful to discriminate against someone based on their membership in a racial group. But it was not until the case of Mandla vs. Dowell-Lee in 1982 that Jews were understood to be a racial group protected under the statute. Although the Dowell-Lee case concerned the racial status of a Sikh-complainant, Lord Denning stated in obiter dictum in his Court of Appeals ruling that Jews constituted a racial group, explaining that he had “no doubt that in using the words ‘ethnic origins’ in the statutory definition of racial group, parliament had in mind primarily the Jews.” In 2010, the Equality Act officially expanded the definition of characteristics protected under law to include religion in addition to race, making anti-Semitism illegal in the UK on multiple bases. But the question still remained as to whether the law recognized Zionism as a Jewish – and thus protected – characteristic. Klaff referenced multiple legal cases that were lost on the grounds that an attachment to Israel was not viewed as an intrinsically Jewish characteristic. In contrast to those cases, following an investigation into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission seemed to recognize Zionism as a core aspect of Jewish identity for some Jews, but since the Commission’s determination was not made in a court of law it could not be used to set a legal precedent. Goldfeder explained that the lack of legal protection for Jews with a strong connection to Israel actually follows one of the popular manifestations of anti-Semitism. “One of the main unchanging symptoms [of anti-Semitism],” he said, “is the attempt by anti-Semites to redefine Jewishness as something… not worthy of protection.” Today, the problem is two-fold: first, all Jews are assumed to be Zionists – a vast generalization of Jewish identity – and second, Zionists are viewed as unworthy of protection. There was a 438 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the ten days following the most recent hostilities between Israel and Gaza, including violence against Jews who made known that they do not support Israel. Jews are consistently assumed to be Zionists but rarely given the space to define for themselves what Jewish Zionism means. So how is Zionism related to Jewish identity? Goldfeder answered this question by sharing his favorite quote by Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin: “Zionism is as integral to Judaism as observing the Jewish Sabbath or maintaining a kosher diet. Not all Jews observe Shabbat or kashrut, but those who do, do so as an expression of their Jewish identity.” At the end of the webinar, Lewin further elaborated that “you do not yourself have to be a Sabbath observer to recognize discrimination against Sabbath observers.” She argued that the same logic translates to Zionism: people do not need to be Zionists themselves in order to recognize when anti-Zionism manifests as unlawful discrimination against an inherent aspect of Jewish identity. Watch the full webinar here.