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The political scientist and Associate
Professor in Law David Schraub (2019)
notes that intersectional studies rarely
subjects, despite
the framework’s potential to illuminate
engage with Jewish
Jewish experiences of marginalization. He
attributes this absence to the widespread
conflation of Jewishness with Whiteness,
which leads scholars to overlook antisem-
itism as a form of oppression (see also
the section on the cultural roots and core
demonology of antisemitism). Schraub
calls for a more nuanced intersectional
approach that recognizes Jewish identity as
complex and distinct, rather than subsum-
ing it under Whiteness (Schraub 2019).
The Professor of Sociology Karin Stégner
noted that antisemitism “does not position
Jews unambiguously on one or the other
side of these markers” but is characterized
by ambivalence with regard to binary clas-
sifications (Stogner 2023, 288), although a
common tendency over recent decades in
everyday language as well as in academia is
to categorize people more or less unambig-
uously along binary codes (e.g. black-white,
hetero-lesbian/gay, oppressor-oppressed).
Two social identities relevant for anti-
semitism are ethnic identity and cultural
identity. The former is in social psychol-
ogy anchored in the identity process, part
of one’s total social identity, and defined
as identification with a group based on
a belief in common ancestry. This belief
makes ethnic identity distinct from other
social identities (Verkuyten 2018). Cultural
identity is defined in different ways within
different disciplines, but here it will suffice
Approaching Religion * Vol. 16, No.1 * March 2026
to note that it is a learnt relationship to the
physical and social environment of one’s
childhood and the result of a socialization
process that anchors an individual to his/
her environment. Religion is often consid-
ered a part of culture, but in Jewish identity
they are often separated. As culture is trans-
mitted from early childhood on within the
family it is partly subconscious. In addi-
tion, culture changes with time, both his-
torically and within an individual's lifetime.
The subjective content and meaning of cul-
ture vary between individuals within the
same cultural group.
Increasing the complexity of social
identities, the content and meaning of any
particular social or collective identity can
individually be based on different charac-
teristics. National identities can be based
on shared culture (language, religion,
values, norms), geographical anchoring
(where one lives), and/or ethnicity (belief
in common ancestry). One specific feature
of antisemitism is the variety of rationali-
ties it has applied over time. This is because
Jewish identity is manifold at its core, a
combination of religion, ethnicity and
broader culture—and many other things
on whose basis a person may call them-
selves Jewish (e.g. Dencik 2009). At the
beginning of Jewish history, Jewish culture,
heritage and religion were very much inter-
twined. This inherently manifold nature of
Jewish identity has, unlike with some other
religious groups, made it possible even for
atheists to have a strong Jewish identity
(Dencik 2009, 321), but has also offered
several different grounds for discrimina-
tion and persecution of Jews.
An important aspect of the content and
meaning of any identity, social or personal,
is that people are not free to choose any
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identity they want. Social as well as per-
sonal identities are presented and nego-
tiated in interaction; self-recognized and
alter-ascribed ethnic/cultural/religious or
any other social identities may not match
(Liebkind 1992; 2006). Our