Correct Answer: No Role At All
jesus does not play a role in judaism. that includes both the tanach, which is arguably our primary religious text, and the daily religious/cultural practice of judaism. he certainly plays a role in jewish history—largely a negative one, as his followers have persecuted jews for multiple centuries. there is evidence that he may appear briefly in the talmud, which is a compilation of jewish legal commentaries and teachings that modern jewish scholars study throughout their lives. however, this is not a commonly-known fact amongst jews (i myself didn't know this beforehand), nor do regular practicioners ever discuss him in torah study or services. (if any talmudic scholars want to comment on this, absolutely feel free to!)
nothing described above constitutes a role in judaism. one trend i saw in tags was the assumption that, since jews often engage in scholarly and/or religious debate, we likely discuss jesus amongst ourselves. we don't lol; if there's a consensus about anything in judaism, it's probably the jesus thing. there is slight variance amongst individual jews; for example, some consider him a wise rabbi/teacher with good ideas, while for others he's just some jewish guy who probably existed and caused problems.
for every non-jew who believed he had a role, i urge you to reflect on this assumption. where did it come from? who gavey you this information initially—a jew or a gentile? why might a gentile source want you to believe we accept jesus as a prophet or prominent figure? i also urge anyone who grew up christian (or in a christian culture) to reflect on any emotional reaction you had to learning this information. were you shocked or uncomfortable? what do you feel about jews who don't like jesus at all, no matter how "good" his ideas might be?
while jesus doesn't play a large role in judaism, christianity plays a large role in antisemitism. this may also be new information to you. if you feel shame or guilt about your reaction and/or not knowing, i gently urge you to unpack that before engaging in any more conversations—if either emotion is the driving force of your allyship, you will burn out. and here's me talking specifically, because i can't speak for all jews lmao: you don't need to confess or repent. you just need to show up and trust the perspectives of jewish people about both our religion/culture and experiences with antisemitism. (you'll notice that all the sources i've included above and below are from jewish organizations!) that's the first step, and i appreciate any goyim who take that step and keep going afterwards.
Results: Quick Analysis:
thank you to everyone who participated! i was actually blown away by how seriously folks took this question; i've been joking to friends that i haven't ever seen this many goyim be normal towards jews LMAO + genuinely curious to learn more about our religion, culture, and history. the bar is wildly low, but it's still cool to see it surpassed. and see an absolute torah study happening in those tags.
very quick analysis: the results were both relieving and worrying. relieving because most people got the right answer! worrying because, well, nearly half of the respondents did not. this isn't a verifiably solid sample size by any means, but that's still roughly 44% of 44,027 respondents, not including everyone who voted "something else." (some of those answers veered from "very wrong" to "techically right," so it'd take a bit to accurately quantify).
that being said, the three primary wrong answers are not equally wrong. there are some interesting nuances to oberve here, and i plan to do so in a much longer post (hopefully) later this week. however, if you're interested in a quick explanation/breakdown of the wrong answers, click the read more below.
