Sorry to parade my ignorance, but could someone explain the difference between a Zionist, a Jew and an Israeli?

shantaram

A zionist is a follower of Zionism which is a movement whose goal was return of Jews to Eretz Yisrael (Zion-Jewish synonym for Jerusalem and the Land of Israel). A Jew is any person whose religion is Judaism. In the broader sense of the term, a Jew is any person belonging to the worldwide group that constitutes, through descent or conversion, a continuation of the ancient Jewish people, who were themselves descendants of the Hebrews of the Old Testament. An Israeli is a citizen of Israel. Mar 09 02, 5:26 PM

Andy

Can you be an Israeli without being a Jew? Yes - e.g. there are Christians with Israeli passports (and don't forget that technically most Palestinians are Israeli citizens too). An Israelite is a descendant of Israel (Jacob) whose 12 sons were the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel (Levites, Simonites, etc.) There were no Israelites before Jacob only Hebrews. Israelis have only existed since 1948. The birth of Zionism is harder to pin down as the Jews/Hebrews have been dispossessed of their claimed homeland on several occassions throughout their history but is often cited as being their defeat and enslavement by the Babylonians. Mar 14 02, 11:18 AM

Yaarbiriah

The above posters answered correctly and well. There are however a couple of points worth adding. There is no actual national Israeli identity designated on official forms in Israel. There is usually a space to enter ethnicity, defined by religion, usually Jewish, Moslem or Christian. This will be on the ID card which is required for everyone to carry by law. However the country is not apartheid as all citizens may go anywhere within the green line and in many some cases, as long as it's safe, outside the green line. ID checks can be requested of anyone at any time but this is low key and routine. If a person calls himself simply 'Israeli' he will usually be ethnically Jewish. Arab citizens of Israel will prefer to identify themselves as 'Israeli Arabs' or Palestinians and they may be either Christian or Moslem. Self identification of other groups is very much a personal individual issue. Apr 27 07, 6:36 AM

Create a Free FunTrivia ID to add to, request more/new answers, or edit this entry

Is a non-Jew (Christian or Muslim) allowed to be a member of the Israeli government? Pardon my ignorance but what is ebonics? Was Einstein an ethnic Jew or a religion Jew (or both)? Could someone please explain, in simple terms, the difference between 'to imply' and 'to infer?'

1 My Ignorance Of Literary Characters I haven't read a single book in my life. In order to punish me, the Literature Fairy banished me to Charactersland, a strange country with odd citizens: each and every character that ever “lived” in literary works. Can you name some of them? Literary Characters Average 10 Q Erpistria Jan 28 08 1227 plays 2 "The Black Parade" - My Chemical Romance (2006) How well do you know the lyrics from this My Chemical Romance album? Let's find out... I'll say some lyrics, you choose the song which they're from. My Chemical Romance Average 10 Q Black_rose06 Nov 08 06 4998 plays 3 Could You Be An Editor? Could you be a quiz editor? Here are some phrases taken from actual quizzes that have been submitted recently. Indicate what type of error or errors the phrase has. Some phrases are correct. All spellings are US English. Quizmaker Tune-Ups Average 15 Q crisw Aug 12 00 3453 plays