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Jewish Beliefs about Rights, Equality and Social Justice » Judaism and Racial Harmony

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Edexcel spec: Paper 1, 4.3 (Judaism)

Jewish teachings which oppose prejudice and discrimination
How Jewish history helps Jews to understand racism
Examples of racial harmony in Jewish practice
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at Selma and the work of JCORE

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Why Judaism opposes racism

In The Multi-Ethnic Society, Racism and Racial Harmony you met prejudice, discrimination and racism, and the idea of racial harmony. Now we look at what Judaism teaches about them. Jews are the followers of Judaism, and they call God the Almighty.

Judaism has no teaching that one race is better than another. Several Jewish beliefs push in the opposite direction.

Key terms:

Ashkenazi: Jews whose families come from central and eastern Europe.
Sephardi: Jews whose families come from Spain, Portugal and North Africa.
Mizrahi: Jews whose families come from the Middle East and nearby lands.
Selma: a town in Alabama, USA, where a famous civil rights march began in 1965.

Four Jewish teachings that oppose prejudice

👪 One common ancestor

The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5), which you met in Judaism and Human Rights, teaches that humanity began with one person, so nobody can say, "My ancestor was greater than yours." If all people share one family, then no race can be better than another.

👑 The image of God

Genesis 1:27 says humans are made in the image of God. Jews believe this is true of every person of every skin colour. Treating someone as worth less because of their race therefore insults the Creator as well as the person.

🤝 Love the stranger

Leviticus 19:34 tells Jews to love the stranger as themselves, "for you were strangers in the land of Egypt". This is a command to welcome people who look, speak or worship differently, and to treat them fairly.

📜 Jewish experience

Jews have suffered prejudice and persecution for centuries. Evil, Suffering and the Jewish Community explained antisemitism, hatred of Jews. Many Jews say that because they know what this feels like, they must oppose racism against everyone.

Racial harmony inside Jewish communities

Jewish communities are not all of one ethnic background. Over many centuries Jews lived in different parts of the world and built different traditions.

Ashkenazi Jews have traditions from central and eastern Europe.
Sephardi Jews have traditions from Spain, Portugal and North Africa.
Mizrahi Jews have traditions from the Middle East.
There are also Jewish communities with roots in Ethiopia and India, and people who convert to Judaism from every background.

Today many Jewish communities, in Britain and elsewhere, include people from several of these backgrounds. They pray, study and celebrate festivals such as Pesach (Passover, which remembers the escape from slavery in Egypt) together. Their food and music may differ, but they share the same Torah. This shows that people of many ethnic backgrounds can belong to one religious community.

Jews do not claim this is perfect. Some Jews of colour say they have faced prejudice, even inside Jewish spaces. Many Jewish leaders accept this and say Judaism's own teachings should be used to challenge it.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at Selma

Marching for civil rights

In the 1960s, Black Americans in the southern United States were fighting for equal rights. They were denied fair voting rights and faced segregation. In March 1965 Dr Martin Luther King led a march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama to demand the right to vote.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a famous Jewish teacher and writer, marched next to King. Afterwards he wrote that the march was both protest and prayer: "I felt my legs were praying." For Heschel, standing up against racism was not separate from his religion. It was part of worshipping God.

This is a good example for exams because it shows a Jewish believer turning a teaching, that everyone is made in the image of God, into action.

JCORE: a Jewish organisation for racial equality

The Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) is a British Jewish charity. It was set up in 1976 by Dr Edie Friedman, first under the name Jewish Social Responsibility Council, and it took the name JCORE in 1994. It was founded to give a Jewish voice on issues of race and asylum, and it has worked with other faiths against prejudice and to support refugees. In 2023 it joined with the American charity HIAS to become HIAS+JCORE.

JCORE's work links straight back to the teachings above. Its supporters often say that because Jews were once strangers, they must stand up for strangers today.

Common mistakes

Saying all Jews have the same ethnic background. Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews are different.
Describing racism in general. Name a Jewish teaching, such as the common ancestor or loving the stranger.
Repeating a teaching without saying why it matters. Link it to racial harmony: if all people share one ancestor, no one can claim to be better.
Saying Heschel was in the USA only to help Jews. He marched for Black Americans' civil rights.

Exam-style question

Paper 1, (b), 4 marks, AO1. Choose one religion. Outline two Jewish teachings that help to promote racial harmony. [4 marks]

Paper 1, (d), 12 marks, AO1 and AO2. "Religious teachings are the best way to end racism." Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]

Model answer

(b) Judaism teaches that every person is made in the image of God (1), so racism is wrong because it treats some people as worth less than others (1). The Mishnah teaches that humanity began with one person, so nobody can say their ancestor was greater (1), which means no race can be better than another (1).

(d) Plan:

For: Jews believe everyone is made in the image of God and descends from one ancestor, which changes how believers see other people. Leviticus 19:34 tells Jews to love the stranger. Heschel marched at Selma because of his faith, and JCORE works against prejudice. Religions reach millions of people and can change hearts, which laws cannot.
Against: laws such as the Equality Act 2010 can punish discrimination and protect people whether or not they are religious. Education and meeting people from different backgrounds also reduce prejudice. Humanists say one human race is reason enough, without religion. Some religious people have also been guilty of racism, and not everyone follows a religion.
Judgement: teachings can change attitudes, but only laws can force fair treatment.
Conclusion: religious teaching is a very strong part of the answer, especially for believers, but it is not the best way alone. Law, education and religion working together are best.

Exam tip

In a 12-mark answer, name a Jewish teaching and a non-religious view, then say whether "the best way" is true. Do not stop at "religion helps".

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