ABSTRACT
Iffeminists reject the concept ofelection, however, what remains ofthe distinctiveness ofIsrael and its relationship to the choosing God? Modern Jewish thinkers have hesitated to give up the idea of chosenness because they have been afraid that, with it, they would surrender the rationale for Jewish existence. But chosenness is necessary to justify Jewish life only on a view that does not take seriously the communal nature of human existence. If human beings are isolated individuals who must be persuaded to link ourselves with others, then Jewish commitment, like any form of communal engagement, requires argument and warrant. If, however, community is constitutive of personhood, then it needs no supernatural vocation to connect the Jew with Jewish living. Jewishness is a rich and distinctive way of being human, of linking oneselfwith God and with other persons, of finding a pattern within which to live that gives life depth and meaning. That is enough reason to be a Jew.
