In this episode, we take inspiration from Hillel’s challenge and explore the essence of Judaism. Rather than beginning with a list of beliefs, we’ll look at Judaism as a whole, starting with a fundamental insight: Judaism is not a religious worldview, but the ethno-religion of in a people rooted in their history and geography, and who bear the responsibility not to let God down.

The main presentation is about 18 minutes long (starting at 2:45 and ending at 21:17) and can stand alone. There is also an epilogue which lists topics not included. This includes a brief explanation (approximately 6 minutes long, starting at 21:30) of the principal differences between movements in Judaism and why it is unhelpful to frame this divide in terms of theology alone. This discussion is presented separately from the main summary of Judaism in order that the differences between Jews do not distract from a holistic understanding of Judaism and of what binds Jews together as a people.

This overview is designed to help educators, students, and curious learners see the bigger picture, understand what is most central within Judaism, and place individual topics in their proper context.

If you are listening to this on an audio podcast, I strongly recommend that you go to https://rejudaism.substack.com, where you can either watch the video, or else view or download the slideshow. Not all the information is captured by the audio alone. I also apologise if the audio is choppy at times due to editing and additions.

The slideshow content is provided here in text form only (without maps etc.):

Judaism is two things.

1. Ethnicity

The Jewish People. Am Yisrael / B’nei Yisrael

history going back 3000 to 4000 years

2. Religion

Ideas, Values.

Practices shaped by Law and centred around stories / Narratives

As a whole: a Religion connected to an Ethnicity (Ethnoreligion)

Neither lasts very long without the other.

Our story (Ethnicity)

A family

* Descended from people who lived where Israel, West Bank and Jordan are today.

* Archaeological presence: from approx. 1200BCE perhaps 1000BCE

* 12 tribes, named for sons of Jacob aka Israel, grandson of Abraham (from the Bible)

Judah and Israel

* Judah: most important tribe, the tribe of kings David and Solomon.

* Judah (Yehuda) → Jew (Yehudi), Judaism

Israelite Religion: Identity based on Covenants with God (contained in Torah)

Covenant with Abraham (outward facing)

* Mission to be a “light unto the nations” (related to modern “tikkun olam”)

* Abraham stood for integrity and bravery (he even argued with God)

* Mission handed down Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → Children of Israel

Covenant at Sinai / with Moses (inward facing)

* “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

* Mission to create a society in the Land founded on justice, morality

* Founding story is the Exodus → ethical lessons (don’t become like Pharaoh)

Oneness of God as an ethical principle:

* All human beings are equally created by the One God in His image

* No person should claim to be a god. We are all under God.

* Do not betray God by worshiping something false / objectifying God

Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh תָּנָ״ךְ)

ת Torah / Teaching – Rules and stories so we are true to these covenants

נ Nevi’im / Prophets (Do we live up to our mission?)

ך Ketuvim / Writings – other stories, psalms, later moral texts (eg. proverbs)

Inherited destiny

* Duty to transmit the covenant the next generation.

* Israelite society is patriarchal – identity inherited from your fatherEnd of biblical period → end of tribal identity → identity becomes matriarchalProgressive Jews today use both (father or mother)

History and Biblical Story

Biblical kings: eg. David, Solomon, Hezekiah

Historical kings: eg. Hezekiah, Hasmoneans

Crossroads of continents → Empires pass through. Often!

* Exile (by Babylonians) 586 BCE

* Return (Cyrus the Great) 520 BCE Marks end of the Biblical period.

* Israelites become Jews (from the name Judah), end of tribal system

* 2nd Temple Period lasts about 650 years.

* Persians, Greeks, Hasmoneans (Maccabees), Romans

* Temple destroyed (Romans) 70CE

* Bar Kochba catastrophe and Exile 135 CE

Diaspora / Exile (Galut)

* Survivors from Judea taken to Rome as slaves → Ashkenazi Jewry

* Others went to Spain, Iraq, North Africa etc → Sephardi / Mizrachi Jewry

* Diverse communities, with common origin in Judah and Israel. family.

* Some Jews remain in Judah and Israel, but most have now left.

* Jews never stop longing to return home to Zion / Jerusalem / arrival of the Messiah.

* (Today almost half of Jews live in Israel.)

Jewish Religion: How to survive?

From Crisis to Innovation

* Israelite religion / early Judaism is rooted in place (the Land, the Temple)

* Cataclysmic events (above). How to adapt Judaism in the Diaspora?

* Many competing approaches. Winner: Judaism of the academy. The Judaism of free debate and discussion. Rabbinic Judaism (Pharisees).

* Sages (Rabbis / Chazal) adapt Judaism to make it portable.

* Maintain our identity and practices as a people, without a fixed location.

* Sacrifices transformed into prayers, said anywhere by anyone

* Judaism becomes an international religion.

Rabbinic Judaism

Judaism today is based on Rabbinic interpretations of the Torah. We don’t always agree on which Rabbis have authority, but we are all Rabbinites.

Chain of Tradition (Mishnah Avot 1:1)

Torah instructs us to appoint judges → Rabbinic authority rooted in Torah.Laws must be interpreted to address contemporary problems.

Torah (Revelation at Sinai) → Moses → Joshua → Elders → Prophets → Men of the Great Assembly (First generation of Sages)

Halachic Process:

Torah → Mishnah → Gemara → Codes of Jewish Law → Modern Responsa

practice shaped by Law and centred around stories / narratives

Example: Creation / Shabbat = Sabbath

Story: Creation of the world.

One God created the whole universe: Good and bad, all from One God

God created the world in six days and then God rested on the seventh day.

God cares about his creations.

Each human being matters, as an individual, with dignity: human beings created individually, each one in the image of God.

A story is just a story, until you bring it to life.

We live this story.

* We work for six days and rest on Shabbat to create holiness in time

* Torah tells us “Remember the Sabbath Day to make it holy.”

* Torah tells us “Guard the Sabbath day to make it holy”

But what does it mean to “Guard” Shabbat and make it holy?

Torah tells us not to do any melachah on Shabbat. What is melachah??

The Sages (Chazal) explain that we look at the work to build the Mishkan – the temporary tent sanctuary in the wilderness after the Exodus.

Torah instructs us to stop work on the Mishkan on Shabbat.

From this, the Sages deduced 39 categories of melachah, including kindling fire, weaving cloth, cooking, building, and writing.

But what does it mean to “Remember” Shabbat and make it holy?

Sages: We actively sanctify Shabbat by reciting kiddush (the sanctification prayer) over wine and by actively celebrating Shabbat with special meals.

Second value of Shabbat: freedom. Resting once a week shows we are free.

Everyone rests on Shabbat: including animals, workers, slaves

Redemption from Egypt / Passover

Exodus from Egypt (Redemption).

We were enslaved by Pharaoh and God personally intervened to free us.

A story is just a story, until you bring it to life.

We live the Exodus story when we celebrate Pesach.

We each identify as personally having left Egypt – this is our origin story.

Seder meal, telling the story, eating matzah

Exodus story motivates much of Jewish social justice activism (tikkun olam).

Torah tells us: “Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt.”

“Don’t take advantage of a stranger. You know what it’s like to be a stranger; you were strangers in Egypt.”

Revelation at Sinai (Receiving the Torah)

1. Creation 2. Revelation 3. Redemption

Decalogue. What Christians call the 10 Commandments.

A story is just a story, until you bring it to life.

We live the Revelation story when we study Torah. God speaks to us.

Torah (5 books of Moses) is full of commandments (mitzvot). 613 for Jews. (Just 7 for non-Jews)

Mitzvot frame every part of our lives: what we eat, how we pray, business ethics, our sex lives, life cycle events….

Performing mitzvot makes our lives holy and makes space for God Living our commitment to Covenant.

Shavuot: festival where we reenact the Revelation at Sinai

Na’aseh Venish’mah – Doing comes first

God-Israel relationship is like a marriage, a Covenant, contracted at Mount Sinai.

At Mount Sinai, Israel accepted all of Torah.

Trust in God - We agreed to adhere to what we had not yet heard.

What is Torah? Not just scripture. Includes Law, Tradition, Teaching, Authority

We accepted the authority of scholarship. (Diverse attitudes to this.)

Rabbinic explanations (such as of melachah) are considered “from Sinai”. This is Oral Torah

Torah instructs us to appoint judges → Rabbinic authority rooted in Torah.Laws must be interpreted to address contemporary problems.

Core text (Exodus 24:7): All that God says, we will do and we will understand.

Na’aseh v’ Nishma. כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר ה נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע

We learn by doing. Belief and understanding emerge from practice.

We teach children how to live (to do mitzvot). → they learn values and develop connection with Judaism, other Jews and God.

Faith in Practice: core idea for Jews.

Possible to be religious and also doubt truth claims.

A religious Jew keeps the faith, by continuing to practice.

Practice of mitzvot opens the door to God coming (back) into your life.

Life after death: not an important topic for Jews. Focus on how to live, in this life.

Summary

God, Torah, Israel

Creation, Revelation, Redemption

Important topics omitted above

Movements / Sects in Judaism

(To listen to this section, skip to 21:30 in the recording above.)

Various responses to the Enlightenment and its emphasis on personal autonomy.

Important not to stereotype, but distinctions between orthodox, progressive and other Jews tend to hinge on disputes over answers to these questions:

* Should Jews assimilate or maintain rules that keep us distinct and separate?

* How do we respond to secular wisdom? Reject? Embrace? Integrate?

* Are mitzvot binding on Jews or just traditions that we value observing?What is more important: personal autonomy or adherence to law?

* Are we bound to follow the rulings of the rabbis who wrote codes of Jewish law and of early modern rabbis who applied these to modernity? Can Jewish law change?

* Is the Torah God’s word, or a sacred part of our Tradition that is partly man-made? (This matters because it affects the authority of Law and whether it can change.)

Jewish Calendar

* Jewish time and why the secular date of Jewish festivals varies year to year.

* Other special days and festivals: centred these around stories / narratives

Interpersonal Mitzvot

* Honest / ethical business dealing

* kindness / charity: eg. hospitality, giving to charity, honouring parents

* Holiness Code in Leviticus

Judaism contains languages:

* Hebrew (in Bible, prayers, Rabbinic literature), Aramaic (Talmud)

Relationship with other religions

* “Abrahamic” faiths: Christianity and Islam

* Ethnoreligions: Hinduism, Sikhi (more in common than you might expect)

Bible stories

* Abraham: His journey (Ivri), family troubles, God’s promise

* Matriarchs, Patriarchs, Joseph, and how Israel’s children ended up in Egypt

History / Antisemitism

* General Jewish history including of Jews in Britain

* Antisemitism and the Holocaust

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In a world that often feels divided, good Religious Education gives students the tools to understand different ways of being human: not just as abstract belief systems or as worldviews, but as living civilisations.

For Jews, authentic representation in RE is existential. It affects our safety and our children’s ability to have a future as part of British society. It is not an exaggeration to say that RE is the single most important influence on how British children come to understand Jews and Judaism. Taught right, it can act as a preventative against antisemitism. Taught badly, it can reinforce anti-Jewish tropes and stereotypes.

What you’ll find here

Our goal is to help RE teachers (and anyone interested in thoughtful religious education) teach Judaism more confidently, accurately, and meaningfully, especially when time is limited.

You can expect:

* Clear explanations of what is most important to communicate about Judaism, and why. What are the core ideas, practices, and ways of thinking that give Judaism its distinctive character?

* Guidance on crafting better inquiry questions: moving away from Christo-centric framings that don’t fit an ethnoreligion like Judaism.

* Practical advice on resources: what’s worth using, what to approach with caution, and why.

* Podcast episodes featuring interviews with specialists in Judaism RE, classroom teachers sharing their experiences (and challenges) teaching Judaism in non-Jewish settings, and honest discussions of what works (and what doesn’t).

* Philosophical and professional discussions:

* Can we truly understand a religion without practicing it?

* How do we teach about faiths that don’t seek converts in a world where many others do?

* How can RE move beyond the popular Worldviews framework, which often over-emphasises individual philosophy and theology at the expense of understanding religions as coherent civilisations that contain diversity?

* How does Judaism relate to other faiths, particularly to Hinduism and Sikhi, which, as ethnoreligions, have more in common with Judaism than is often acknowledged.

* And crucially: How can teachers help students to explore big questions without trespassing on the domain of parents in guiding their children’s religious upbringing?

* Future video content: Short, classroom-usable explanations of key aspects of Judaism. These will be made freely available where possible, subject to sponsorship support.

In summary, we aim to support accurate religious education that honours Judaism as the living ethnoreligion and civilisation of the Jewish People, so children learn about Jews as the living Children of Israel (Am Yisrael), rather than reducing Judaism to a set of beliefs, or to a set of answers to questions that don’t quite fit.

What’s happening? Why this matters now

Currently, the UK sits at a crossroads. For decades, RE has been a statutory subject in UK schools, but yet not part of the National Curriculum that guides teaching in all other statutory subjects. Instead, each local authority has determined its own RE syllabus by holding an Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC) approximately every five years.

Some locally agreed syllabi have been quite good, but Judaism coverage and authenticity has been patchy. The quality of Judaism teaching is therefore highly variable and often driven by national RE advising companies and bodies, with Judaism lessons and learning objectives typically produced by non-Jews, based on their outsider perspectives on Judaism. This leads to distorted teaching, and distorted priorities.

In November 2025, a momentous decision was made by the current UK Government, to explore bringing RE into the National Syllabus for the first time. This decision is widely seen as necessary, since with the rise of academy trusts, many schools now are not under the auspices of any local authority and therefore have no statutory RE syllabus at all. Some schools use this freedom effectively to be creative, but practice is variable. Moreover, many local authorities struggle to find minority faith representatives to attend an ASC, or to sit on the associated SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education).

Notwithstanding the positives, a potential national curriculum in RE is also fraught with dangers. Will the content of Judaism RE match what is needed so that children learn what Jews need others to know about us, or will this content again be driven by external priorities, as has too often happened locally? Who will write specifications for the teaching of Judaism?

In Berkshire in 2024, Jews were forced to file an Equality complaint against a Worldviews syllabus, written by highly esteemed RE experts, that erased our identity as the Children of Israel. Moreover, Jews and Hindus were forced repeatedly to raise the alarm about Critical RE exercises in which primary school pupils developed their personal worldviews of by evaluating which religious beliefs were more “likely” or reasonable.

These events demonstrate that good intentions are not enough without authentic community voices as full partners. We must face up to the real possibility that the same sorts of mistakes that were attempted in Berkshire could occur on a national scale, hampering authentic teaching of Judaism to non-Jewish children, and thus undermining work to prevent antisemitism. Authentic expertise is needed now more than ever.

In November 2025, in order to rise to this challenge, the Association of Jewish Religious Education Professionals (AJREP.UK) was formed, including the team at REJudaism.org. AJREP brings together two types of people: (1) those who teach Judaism in non-Jewish schools or assist such teaching, but who are not currently classroom teachers and (2) Jewish RE teachers in non-Jewish schools (not Jewish studies teachers). We need both types of people as they bring different skills to the table.

Coming back to the broader RE world, from December 2025 through March 2026 a process known as sector engagement took place to explore whether consensus could be reached on a general framework for a national syllabus for RE. This was managed by an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) led by Vanessa Ogden CBE. Various groups were included in these conversations, and with some difficulty, AJREP was able to have it’s voice heard.

This resulted in “Draft Programmes of Study”, a short document which was presented by the EAG to the Secretary of State for Education at the end of March. Then on July 3, the UK Government responded to the Draft Programmes of Study (still unpublished), announcing that a public consultation on RE in the national syllabus will commence in September. You can find the response of AJREP here.

So we stand now on the threshold of this national consultation, which may very well lead to a national syllabus in RE: a true watershed moment for the discipline. As a matter of urgency, the sector clearly now needs a national content standard for the teaching of Judaism in RE. This must be written by RE Judaism specialists, rather than outsiders who may have their own external agendas related to Judaism. This page will be there to support and publicise such content as it develops.

Join the conversation

We’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re an RE teacher, a subject leader, a Jewish educator working in schools, an academic, or simply someone who cares about better religious literacy, please let us know:

* What challenges do you face when teaching Judaism?

* Which topics feel hardest to get right?

* Which resources have let you down… or genuinely helped?

Your insights and questions will shape what comes next.

Subscribe (it’s free!) and you’ll receive new posts as soon as they are published.

Find us on Substack: https://rejudaism.substack.com/

Share this Substack with colleagues who teach RE. The more teachers who have access to high-quality support on Judaism, the better the experience for thousands of students.

Thank you for being here. We look forward to learning and exploring together.

B’vrachot (with blessings),

The ReJudaism.org team