As a Jew

As a Jew is an expression used by Jewish individuals to identify their Jewish affiliation as relevant to their point of view or speech. It has appeared in religious, cultural, professional and political contexts, including discussions of religious interpretation, professional identity and personal experience. The related expression "speaking as a Jew" has been examined in academic writing on Jewish identity, representation, assimilation and the position of Jews in wider society. In political discourse, the expression has also been used in arguments concerning Israel, Zionism and other political issues, as well as to characterize and criticize such uses.

Definition

The expression "as a Jew" indicated that a speaker is presenting their Jewish identity as relevant to a statement, position or perspective. The related formulation "speaking as a Jew" similarly connects a speaker's position to their Jewish identity and has been examined in discussions of Jewish identity and representation. Stratton uses the term in discussing Jews in relation to British cultural studies, minority identity and assimilation, while Ari Joskowicz examines its use by Jewish members of the German Reichstag in debates over religion and secularism in the nineteenth-century.

The term "'as a Jew' Jew" has been used to describe Jews who invoke their Jewish identity in political arguments. Other writers have used "as a Jew" or "speaking as a Jew" when discussing Israel, Zionism, antisemitism and the Israel–Gaza war.

Uses

Early use (1800–1972)

In the nineteenth century, Jewish members of parliament in France and Germany referred to their Jewish identity when addressing questions concerning Jewish rights and religious affairs. Ari Joskowicz examines these instances in his discussion of Jewish parliamentary representation, including a section titled "Speaking as a Jew in a Period of Secularist Conflict". He describes Jewish deputies who spoke on behalf of Jewish rights while also framing their arguments in terms of universalism and citizenship.

The expression continued to appear in discussions of Jewish identity during the twentieth century. In 1931, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on a statement by Albert Einstein under the title "Einstein As Jew and German". The statement responded to antisemitic attacks concerning Einstein's identity and discussed his attachment to the Jewish people alongside his identification with German and European culture. The expression is further used in a book published that year by Rabbi Ernest R. Trattner titled As a Jew Sees Jesus. The book presented Jesus and his teachings from a Jewish point of view. In 1948, Ausert E. Kann used the expression in a letter published in Jewish Life. Discussing the relationship between reactionary politics and antisemitism and linking antisemitism to the establishment of death camps for Jews, Kann wrote, "And as a Jew, I know that reaction and anti-Semitism grow side by side".

By the 1960s, the phrase was also being used in discussions of race, citizenship, and American public life. In 1968, Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild used the phrase when discussing the civil rights movement and black separatism. Addressing the Hungry Club Forum in Atlanta, Rothschild said that "as a Jew and as an American citizen" he would not abandon his religious commitment in response to black separatism, referring also to his earlier involvement in the struggle against racial segregation. A related formulation, speaking as a Jew, appeared in a 1972 sermon by Rabbi Murray Blackman at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, Blackman contrasted speaking "as a Jew" with speaking "as an American", invoking both Jewish experience and American ideals in discussing the political climate of 1972.

Contemporary use (1992–present)

The term continued to appear in discussions of Jewish identity during the 1990s. In 1992, journalist Richard Cohen used the phrase in a Washington Post column about antisemitism. Cohen wrote, "As a Jew, I can say" that part of his discussion with "tongue in cheek", using his Jewish identity to frame his response to the findings of an Anti-Defamation League survey on antisemitism in the United States. In 1995, Avraham Burg, then chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, used the phrase while discussing Jewish identity and Israel's relationship with Jews in the diaspora. In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Burg said, "As a Jew, I am an Israeli", describing Israel as the place where he could be a Jew with responsibility for his own life.

The term was also used in academic discussions of Jewish identity. In 1998, Jon Stratton used Speaking as a Jew as the title of an article examining the position of Jews within British cultural studies and discussions of race and minority identity. Stratton argues that Jews occupy an uncertain position, being treated both as part of the dominant population and as an ethnic and cultural minority. Stratton went back to this topic in 2000, using Speaking as a Jew as the title of a chapter in Coming Out Jewish: Constructing Ambivalent Identities, where he discusses Jewish identity, assimilation and belonging in Western societies.

In the 2000s, the expression continued to be used to describe the different aspects of Jewish identity in relation to national and political questions. In 2006, Sam Kermanian, secretary general of the Iranian Jewish Federation, described the competing aspects of Iranian-American Jewish identity in an article about Iran's nuclear program. He stated that, "As a Jew, he wants to ensure Israel's safety", while also describing his concerns as an American citizen and as an Iranian. In 2009, The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen used the phrase in an article about his visit to Iran. Writing from Isfahan, Cohen stated that, "as a Jew, I have seldom been treated with such consistent warmth as in Iran". His comments subsequently became the subject of criticism and discussion among Iranian-American Jews.

The phrase was also used by Israeli political figures in discussing Jewish identity. For example, in 2010, Shimon Peres, then President of Israel, used the phrase in an address to the Bundestag. Speaking on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Peres said, "As a Jew, I always carry the pain of the holocaust endured by my brothers and sisters", contrasting this perspective with his subsequent statements "As an Israeli" and "As a grandfather".

In 2016, Ben Kasstan described himself as a "Jew-ish" ethnographer in an article on his anthropological research among British Haredi Jews. He discussed how his own Jewish background affected his position as a researcher among the community.

The phrase was used as the title of Sarah Hurwitz's 2025 book, As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us, published by HarperOne. Hurwitz has said that the title was intended to express an unqualified identification with being Jewish, rather than a description such as "a cultural Jew". The book discusses Jewish identity in relation to antisemitism, assimilation, Holocaust education, Zionism and Israel. The book won the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice category at the 2025 National Jewish Book Awards.

In a 2026 interview with The Guardian, writer Isaac Butler discussed the Jewish experience in the work of artist Philip Guston, a Jewish-American artist. Referring to Guston's depictions of the Ku Klux Klan and the controversy surrounding a postponed retrospective of his work because of it, Butler said, "As a Jew, I was pretty mad about the erasing of the Jewish experience with the Klan."

Recent polemical use

The expression "'as a Jew' Jew" or simply "AsAJew" (also spelled "asajew") emerged as a more specific description of the use of Jewish identity in political arguments. In 2009, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council published an article discussing the "'as a Jew' Jew", a term it used for Jews who invoke their Jewish identity in political arguments. The expression continued to appear in later discussions of Jewish identity and criticism of Israel. In January 2024, Robert Singer quoted Elie Wiesel in the Jerusalem Post as saying, "As a Jew, I need Israel," in an article arguing for the ethical justification of Zionism. In April of that year, Rabbi David Mason wrote in Jewish News about the Israel–Gaza war, antisemitism and Islamophobia, describing himself as speaking "as a Jew, as a rabbi, and as director of HIAS+JCORE".

"I'm a Jew and I'm criticizing an action of Israel."

— Ben Cohen, No Small Endeavor, 2021

In 2021, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry's, invoked their Jewish identity when discussing the company's decision to stop selling its products in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In a joint statement, Cohen and Greenfield described themselves as "proud Jews" and said that their Jewish identity was part of who they were while explaining their position on Israel and the West Bank. Discussing his position on the issue in an interviews, Cohen said, "Yeah, I'm a Jew ... I'm a Jew and I'm criticizing an action of Israel". Responding to accusations of antisemitism following the company's decision, Cohen said in a different interview, "What, I'm anti-Jewish? I'm a Jew. My family is Jewish. My friends are Jewish."

The phrase also became the subject of more explicit discussion in 2024. In April, Matthew Schultz used the term "'as-a-Jew' Jew" in an article for the Jewish Journal. He described people who preface criticism of other Jews or of Israel by emphasizing their Jewish identity, citing actor Jonathan Glazer's 2024 Academy Awards speech as an example. Glazer, accepting the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for The Zone of Interest, said that he and his fellow filmmakers "refute their Jewishness" in connection with what he called an occupation, and referred to both the victims of the October 7 attacks in Israel and the ongoing attack on Gaza. Jonathan S. Tobin subsequently described Glazer's speech as a quintessential "'as a Jew' moment", arguing that it exemplified the use of Jewish identity to criticize Israel and other Jews.

In May 2024, Lily Greenberg Call resigned from the Department of the Interior over the Biden administration's policy toward the Gaza war. She discussed her motives in an opinion article published by The Guardian titled "Biden was my boss. I resigned because as a Jew I cannot endorse the Gaza catastrophe", referring to Jewish history and religious values.

The article was later republished by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. In September 2025, Steven Burg published an opinion article in the Jerusalem Post titled "The danger of the rising 'as a Jew' phenomenon", criticizing the use of Jewish identity in arguments against Israel. Later that month, Adam Milstein wrote in the Jerusalem Post about Jewish political voices who invoke their Jewish identity in criticism of Israel, describing this as an "'As a Jew' stamp of approval".

The expression has also been used by Jewish figures to describe their own positions on the Israel–Gaza war and related political questions. In May 2026, J., a Jewish news publication based in the San Francisco Bay Area, reported on criticism of California state senator Scott Wiener after he described Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. The article quoted Wiener as saying, "As a Jew, I am deeply aware that the word 'genocide' was created in the wake of the Holocaust," in explaining his use of the term.

On 2 September 2026, Jewish identity was invoked in a defense of actor Mark Ruffalo following accusations of antisemitism. An open letter signed by some 170 Jewish figures (artists, writers, etc.) began, "We are Jewish artists, writers, creative professionals, faith leaders and thinkers", before stating that connecting the war in Gaza with developments in Hollywood was "the very essence of Jewish ethical duty". In a subsequent commentary, Nestor Daniel Scherman of the Times of Israel questioned why the signatories' Jewish identity was considered relevant to the dispute.

See also

• Jewish identity
• Jewish ethics
• Anti-Zionism
• Self-hating Jew
• Tokenism