My father was Jewish and my mother is not, which is to say that I'm not Jewish at all. I find this odd.
I know that many religions are passed on maternally, but Judaism is a culture as well as a religion.
Jews have either not to have picked up on or don't care about something every other minority group, at least in the US, seems to know intrinsically: if you're even the slightest bit detectably non-white, to the white world, you're not white. If you're half white and half Chicano, you're Chicano. End of story.
Given that, people of mixed races are, in my observation, generally accepted in the ethnic communites that makes up their non-white part or parts—except the Jewish community. As far as most observant Jews are concerned, you're either Jewish or you're not, there is no in-between. As a people with about 4,000 years of persecution under their (our?) belts, I think it's a little strange that they (we?) haven't figured out by now that people who have problems with Jews don't care if you're only half-Jewish, they're still going to hate you.
Half-Jews basically have two choices: convert to Judaism or have no ethnic community to call home. (Why we need ethnic communities to call home is another question altogether.)
Daniel Klein and Freke Vuijst wrote a book called The Half-Jewish Book: A Celebration. Nonsense, they say, being half-Jewish is just fine. One of these days, when it's out of storage, I'll finish reading it.
To be fair, my father was not religiously Jewish, and I only lived with him until I was 4, so I'm a little light on what the reasons might be.
I face the same dangers that "real" Jews do in certain parts of the world. What gives? Maybe I'm being a pissant whiner, but it doesn't seem entirely fair.
I'd like to see some genuine discussion on this. There are probably factors I'm not aware of. Let's keep it respectful.
If you belong to some hate group, I don't want to hear it. I know and disagree with your position and nothing you say is going to change my mind.
I'm not as learned as many other orthodox Jews, and no, I don't see that as being hypocratic, to live the life as best I can even without always knowing and understanding the whys involved. I know that at some point it was decided Judaism is passed maternally because you ALWAYS know at time of birth who the mother is- something that isn't always true of who the father is. I also know when the Nazis came to kill us, people whose mothers were not jewish but whose fathers were- were also rounded up and killed. It's like you say, AS FAR AS THE LAWS OF JUDAISM ARE CONCERNED there are no half-Jews. Either your mom is Jewish and therefore you're Jewish, or not and not. So it does leave quite a number of people in the lurch, and I don't know what to tell them, or you about it. I know a close friend of my father's, he married a non-Jewish woman, who then converted to Judism BY A REFORM RABBI. now I would say if you're going to do it, do it right, without the shortcuts and such. But as it is, she went with the reform conversion. And rasied their two girls Jewish. Strict Orthodox Judaism does not recognize not the mother and not the two girls as Jewish. I personally think this isn't right. They're not anything else, and they live as reform Jews. But who am I? Am I going to change the laws? I'm not even likely to get up on a soapbox and cry about them. Life's not fair, and we all have to live with what we got. So some have problems with religion. Some have problems with money, some with health, some with mental problems, some with physical problems, there's no shortage of problems. So some have religion problems. So don't belong, or convert. You're not going to change the world and the Laws and all od Judaism. So either choose to belong or choose not to. Or what do I care? choose to try to change the world.
I see your point and to some degree with it from a religious persepctive, but Judaism isn't just a religion, it's a culture as well.
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I also know when the Nazis came to kill us, people whose mothers were not jewish but whose fathers were- were also rounded up and killed.
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This is exactly my point. We're subject to the same risks, without choice, and have no support network. Does that seem fair?
Posted by Nick Grossman at August 31, 2004 05:08 PMDoes it seem fair. No. It seems very not fair. I was thinking today about what I posted last, and am regetting some of it. I am sorry to sound so obnoxious about how everyone has problems and so what. I am obviously (to me) just falling into one of my moods again. Problems don't need to be ignored just because there's so many of them. But in this particular case all I can think of it no, it's not fair. And that's it, that's what is in this world. I'm forever telling my kids "Life's not fair, get over it" but it's just a way to avoid the questions that I really don't have answers to.
Posted by Aviva Sofer at August 31, 2004 10:56 PMActually, the whole killing business by the germans is incorrect. The germans in their usual methods sorted out who was jewish and who wasn't jewish, using the same laws as we jews do.
Either way, if you want to be jewish, then you're jewish. My dealings with most orthodox fanatics, (excluding Avivia) has been, if you're not one of them, then you're not a jew.
In all honesty. Fuck em. You are what you say you are, what you do, and what you feel. Just because some hairy stinky fuckers act like the same people who persecuted our people do, is no reason to get in a huff.
Posted by Grelf at September 3, 2004 09:29 AMYeah, it seems most Orthodox sects are Jewier than thou. Sephardic Jews think that if you're not a Spheardic Jew, you're not Jewish, etc. It's crap as is elitist behavior from any group.
And yeah, in all honesty, fuck 'em. I have no real interest in becoming religiously anything but I do have real interest in the cultural aspects of Judaism—regardless of what anyone says, it's a very real part of me.
I think it's both interesting an bogus in that it really seems to be a cultural anomaly that makes little to no sense. I don't know of any other minority that does this.
Posted by Nick at September 3, 2004 07:33 PM