Jews were long classified as an oriental people by the West

Evidence

Central to all debate on orientalism and the Jews is that, historically, Jews have been seen in the Western world variably and often concurrently as occidental and oriental. Even today, when the Jews are generally thought of as a Western people, that perception is nuanced by the fact that Israel (home not only to Jews of European background but also to millions of “oriental” Jews and Arabs) is located in the East. More important, the Jews are identified, both by themselves and by the Western world, with the ancient Israelites who established themselves, and the monotheistic tradition, in that same “oriental” location. It is this latter identification with the biblical lands that allowed Jews to be seen during the centuries as an “oriental people,” a perception challenged only in the twentieth century as the result of Jewish-Arab strife in the Middle East. The German Enlightenment philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder expressed the once standard Western conception of the Jews when he wrote that they were the “Asiatics of Europe.” — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 68

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Said’s Orientalism framework and to how biblical/political geography shapes an entire people’s perceived identity. — connects to: Judaism resists modern Western categories of nation, ethnicity, race, and religion. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 743; Jewish racialization varies with historical stability and splits along West-East rather than unified lines — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 39; Jewish nationalism adopted the Christian West’s secularized image of the ancient Hebrews — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 335
• SHARE: The Herder quote, calling Jews the ‘Asiatics of Europe,’ is a quotable gem for anyone working on European intellectual history or race classification.