Peoplehood and ethnicity, how do we define the connection between these two concepts? In this issue of PTP, we present articles that relate to various aspects of the connection between ethnicity and central ideologies of Jewish identity: Zionism, Jewish religion, and Jewish Peoplehood.

Shlomo Zand's Hebrew language book "The Invention of the Jewish People" - a best seller in Israel - has elicited much comment and critique. Zand targets the Zionist "myth of return" claiming that modern day Jews are not the descendents of Jews exiled from The Land of Israel by the Romans, but rather of various ethnic groups who converted to Judaism over the centuries. He goes on to claim that until the nineteenth century the Jews shared only a religion, Zionism invented Jewish Peoplehood in order to justify Jewish nationalism. We bring here two reviews of this book, one appreciative the other a scathing critique. The book will soon be published in French which will no doubt expand this discussion to wider circles.

Next are two articles by Sue Fishkoff published in The Forward, one describing the latest conference of Bchol Lashon, an organization that supports persons and groups of various ethnicities who identify as Jewish, the other describing the life, aspirations and difficulties of Alysa Stanton-Ogulnick the first black female rabbi. Both cases are examples of Judaism traversing ethnic boundaries (though some of the groups see themselves as descendents of the lost ten tribes and therefore of the same ethnicity as other Jews).

Prior to the current re-entry of "Peoplehood" into the arena of Jewish identity, the concept was commonly used to denote the national or ethnic aspect of Judaism as opposed to the religious. Tobin is thinking in these categories when he writes that American Jewry needs both Peoplehood and religion as bases of identity if it is to survive. Michaelson, discusses the current usage of Peoplehood, claiming that while the concept encourages solidarity among Jews of different beliefs, in its attempt to embrace all Jews it has become so inclusive, that it is vacuous. He claims that if anybody were to see Peoplehood as the basis of her Jewish identity it would render her suspect of ethnocentrism.