Jews on the Move

Abstract That Jews, however defined, can and do exist across the globe, as does virtually every other self-defined cohort, is not surprising. But that there is always an ideological explanation for this simple geographical fact means that notions of rootedness, cosmopolitanism, and nomadism come to be defined as specifically Jewish qualities. This chapter examines how the notion of a global or local Jewish presence is always fraught, both from within those who self-define as Jews as well as from without, in the various worlds that they inhabit, from the Roman Empire to the State of Israel.