# Am I a Jew? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2000, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956 "2000-02-04T19:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/1 "2000-02-05T06:42:00Z")
I seem to recall hearing that it is Jewish tradition to consider someone a Jew if their mother is Jewish. Is this true? If so, then I may need to change my name to RabbiTim. It turns out my maternal great-great grandmother (on the mother’s side all the way) was Jewish. I thought I was a full blooded Italian until a couple weeks ago, so I know little of the Jewish heritage. Is 30 too late to have a Bar Mitzva? And I don’t need a bris, before anyone asks… ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/2 "2000-02-05T06:45:00Z")
I hope you don’t plan on going anywhere after sunset tonight! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/3 "2000-02-05T06:52:00Z")
Uh oh, are we in the middle of some kind of holiday? Could I have taken the day off from work? Woohoo! I didn’t even think of all the new holidays!!! **YEAH BABY!!!** ---
**Author:** ![batgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@batgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/4 "2000-02-04T19:00:00Z")
According to Jewish law (we’re talking Orthodox here) if a person’s mother is Jewish, then he / she is Jewish. A Jewish boy becomes a bar mitzvah (literally 'son of the commandments) at age 13, whether or not there is a ceremony - so if you are Jewish you are already a bar mitzvah (sorry, no party). Jewish girls become bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandments) at age 12. And, I hate to break this to you, but a bris is not just a circumcision - it has to be done according to Jewish law. So, unless your circumcision was performed by someone knowledgable in Jewish law, you will need to have a procedure performed in order to have a ‘kosher bris.’ Men who convert to Judaism as adults have to have a drop of blood drawn as part of the ceremony, even if they’ve already been circumcised. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/5 "2000-02-04T19:17:00Z")
I believe the Jewish sabbath starts at sunset on Friday nights. Travel is prohibited on the sabbath. My entire knowledge of this custom comes from the movie “The Frisco Kid”, so I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Absynthetic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@Absynthetic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absynthetic)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/6 "2000-02-04T19:22:00Z")
[Hijack] _The Frisco Kid_ is one of my all-time favorite movies…it’s not particularly high art, but it’s funny as hell![/hijack] * * * Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/7 "2000-02-04T19:34:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Ursa Major: > \*\*I believe the Jewish sabbath starts at sunset on Friday nights. Travel is prohibited on the sabbath. > > My entire knowledge of this custom comes from the movie “The Frisco Kid”, so I could be wrong.\*\* Actually, _work_ is what’s prohibited during the Sabbath. Travel, as long as it’s under your own power, is fine. But driving a car, riding a bike, or saddling up and riding the donkey, all constitute work. Find the thread that talked about Kosher pickles for some excellent discourse in some of the food laws. There’s also at least one other thread on the rules as regards being Jewish. I’m too lazy to hunt them down right this second, but a little search engine work (before the sabbath, of course) will do you good. 🙂 - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/8 "2000-02-04T19:39:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by batgirl: > \*\*Men who convert to Judaism as adults have to have a drop of blood drawn as part of the ceremony, even if they’ve already been circumcised. > > Good luck.\*\* Umm, drawn from where exactly? ---
**Author:** ![batgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3bc359/32.png) [@batgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/9 "2000-02-04T19:58:00Z")
From the same organ that would be circumcised, if it weren’t already. What did you think? I actually know two men who converted to Judaism as adults, but being the modest person that I am I haven’t asked them about it. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/10 "2000-02-04T20:12:00Z")
That would have been my guess, but I was hoping I was wrong. Not that I’m going to convert or anything, I just feel for the guys who go through it. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/11 "2000-02-04T20:16:00Z")
Yup. According to Torah law, if your maternal line is Jewish, then so are you. Welcome back to the family. I won’t be back on this board until Monday, but any questions about your new religious identity can be answered right here (although Nickrz is sure to transfer it to Great Debates within a few posts). * * * Chaim Mattis Keller [ckeller@kozmo.com](mailto:ckeller@kozmo.com) “Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.” – Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/12 "2000-02-04T20:22:00Z")
- - - If you invite your parents to stay the weekend and then you charge them $50 a night, _you might be a Jew!_ - - - - Couldn’t resist. - - Some of my best Jews are friendish, though. - MC * * * “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others” - [despair.com](http://despair.com) ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/13 "2000-02-04T22:45:00Z")
Well what happens when the guy has been a Catholic for twenty years. Do Jews still consider him Jewish? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/14 "2000-02-04T22:48:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Is 30 too late to have a Bar Mitzva? Legendary funnyman Henny Youngman did not get his Bar Mitzvah when he was 13–don’t know the reason. I read that when he was in his 70s, that he was finally going to get one, but I don’t know that he actually did. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/15 "2000-02-04T22:53:00Z")
you could waive the whole blood thing if you fill out the right forms; you’re going to _have_ to get your nose lengthened though. It serves pretty much the same purpose as wearing a uniform in the military but we save money on dry cleaning 🙂 * * * Mayor of [Snerdville](http://fathom.org/snerdville), the home of Mortimer Snerd “I’m just too much for human existence – I should be animated.” –Wayne Knight ---
**Author:** ![APB9999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB9999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB9999)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/16 "2000-02-05T00:04:00Z")
I’m off for the weekend soon, myself, but before I go, can someone answer this question? > [@](#): > > Travel, as long as it’s under your own power, is fine. But driving a car, riding a bike, or saddling up and riding the donkey, all constitute work. That seems backwards to me, and I’ve wondered about it before. I can slog up a mountain by foot, panting and sweating, and that’s okay, but if I drive to the top it counts as work? I don’t mean to be flippant - well, at least, no _more_ flippant than I am about everything else - but I’m curious how this thinking originated. Who decided that riding a car (or an animal for that matter) was work, and why? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/17 "2000-02-05T00:08:00Z")
I know a guy who converted to Judaism before he got married. At the tender age of 32 he had a briss. I do know that Maya royalty had to let blood in ritual ceremonies, you know to appease the gods. The kings had to use an obsidan blade and get blood from the penis. Apparently they knew where to cut in order to minimize excessive bleeding, and heal quickly and without infection. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/18 "2000-02-05T00:27:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Mjollnir: > \*\* > Legendary funnyman Henny Youngman did not get his Bar Mitzvah when he was 13–don’t know the reason. > > I read that when he was in his 70s, that he was finally going to get one, but I don’t know that he actually did.\*\* This arises from the mistaken impression that one must have a ceremony in order to “be” or “become” _bar mitzvah_. Nothing could be further from the truth. As batgirl correctly pointed out, a boy **is** _bar mitzvah_ the day he turns thirteen. He is subject to the commendments from that day forth. No ceremony is needed, no rabbi’s pronouncement makes it so. It’s not unusual for men whose families were either not observant, or too poor to afford a “proper” Bar Mitzvah party to believe they they someone weren’t Bar Mitzvah’ed. Sometimes they learn the requisite Hebrew to read the Scroll and have a party at forty, or fifty (or seventy!). There’s nothing wrong with having a party, or learning to read the Scroll… but it doesn’t change to man’s status as a Jew. If he wanted to “re-dedicate” himself to Judaism, it would make more sense to have himself re-circumcised. If a person, born a Jew, is baptized and raised in a Christian faith, there is some disagreement as to whether or not he is still a Jew. I don’t know how a case like this would be interpreted, quite frankly, when the individual was ignorant of his heritage until the time he’s thirty. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/19 "2000-02-05T00:49:00Z")
I’m pretty sure that reading from the Torah is an important part of the Bar Mitzvah ritual. And it is a ritual, not something on a timer. ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956/20 "2000-02-05T00:50:00Z")
adam yax, the Mayans not only cut it, they dragged a string with thorns through it. Did the same with the tongue. The blood was put on some paper and the paper burned as a sacrifice. I wonder if this ceremony occured after the king begot an heir. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-a-jew/6956.md?page=2)