Decolonisation of the Jewish mind

The language of decolonisation has become central to contemporary debates about identity and power. In social activist and academic circles, it is invoked to dismantle colonial narratives and restore indigenous voices. Yet it is often applied through a binary lens of oppressor versus oppressed which is a problematic framework when applied to the Jewish people. The Jewish return to our ancestral homeland is frequently mischaracterised as colonial, rather than recognised as the restoration of a people to their historic home.

To address this distortion, as Jews we must decolonise our own identity, reclaiming who we are at the deepest level. For centuries, Diaspora Jews have been described through compound or national identifiers: Australian Jews, Polish Jews, Moroccan Jews, American Jews. These descriptors tell the story of migration, but they also reinforce the idea that Jewish identity is disconnected from Israel.

Our truest identity is not Polish, Russian or Moroccan. It is Israelite. We are the descendants of those who spoke Hebrew in Judea, built the Temple in Jerusalem, and carried the covenant across millennia of exile. Every dispersion since has been displacement, often caused by external forces or colonial conquest.

While the term “Israelite” captures our historical and ancestral roots, the modern term “Israeli” is commonly understood as a citizen of the modern State of Israel. We propose that Diaspora Jews can also adopt it culturally in order to assert continuity with our ancestors, even if we do not hold citizenship. This distinction allows for a dual recognition: Indigenous Israeli as heritage, Israeli citizen as a legal status.

To understand how this term resonates, we conducted a survey among members of the Jewish community selected to reflect a range of ages and backgrounds. When asked whether they would feel comfortable identifying as “Israeli” regardless of where they or their families have lived, responses were almost evenly divided: