In this issue of Paths to Peoplehood we view the concept of Peoplehood along two lines, vertical and horizontal, that is to say historical and comparative. The key article in the vertical, or historical, strand is that of Eliyahu Stern. While some have presented Jewish Peoplehood as a new idea, Stern describes Peoplehood as a critical element of 20th century American Jewish life (even if the term itself was not in common use in the Jewish world). In his rendition, Peoplehood refers to ideologies and movements that drew meaning from the continued existence of the Jewish people. This is in contrast to those religious denominations whose primary goals were spiritual and religious. Jewish activists Kotzin and Bayme, present similar understandings of Jewish Peoplehood but from different vantage points. Kotzin sets out to defend Jewish Peoplehood against academic post-nationalists, and Bayme takes on the young Jewish writers of the Jewcy blog who find insistence on in-group marriage to be anachronistic. Szlajen, who has translated his article from Spanish especially for Paths to Peoplehood, is a contemporary Latino-American Jewish voice that is critical of diasporic Jewish identity, he calls for a more proactive Jewish living that is not based solely upon emotional identification with the collective.

The horizontal strand refers to the seldom made comparison between the Jewish People and other dispersed nations/cultures/ethnic groups. In the late 20th century technological developments in the fields of communication and transportation have transformed the experience of immigration; it is no longer characterized by a severing of contacts with the 'old country' and its culture. Since the nineties, social scientists have tended to replace the term "immigrants" with the term "Diaspora" as a descriptor of these communities (i.e. Chinese in the US, Turks in Germany). Fullilove discusses this global phenomenon and its ramifications. In an article written towards the end of the last century Ezrachi attempts to understand the meaning that all this may have for the much older Jewish Diaspora. He believes that "cultural hybridity", that is, identification with more than one cultural community as is common among post-colonial diasporas, is a key element for the preservation of Jewish Peoplehood as well. He calls for the utilization of techniques such as education and travel in order to turn young American Jews into cultural hybrids influenced both by American and Jewish culture.

We conclude with a voice from Israel. Moty Cristal, in his words - does not quite define but does more than just describe - Jewish Peoplehood as a program for action. Like some of the writers above, he too proscribes a Jewish Peoplehood that embraces cultural and spiritual Jewish content, yet he goes further calling for it to be outward looking (Tikkun Olam) while remaining rooted in Jewish culture and tradition (i.e. emphasizing the study of Hebrew and the importance of Israel).