My mother comes from a Jewish family and her ancestors came to the United States four generations ago. They were all from Jewish families in Russia and Germany. My father is also Jewish; his family hails from Germany. Neither my mother or father, or any of my grandparents were ever particularly religious, and I have never attended a cynagogue. I have no formal education in the Torah (though I have read both the old and new testaments, and many other religious texts, for the hell of it) and I don’t know a word of Hebrew. I consider myseld an Atheist and a Taoist.
Now here’s my dillemma.
Unlike Christianity, Judaism is both very much a heritage as well as a religion. I am obviously not religiously Jewish, but my heritage is Jewish. When people ask me what “I am,” I usually say, “German/Russian Jew, mostly.” But most people then start sending me Chanukkah cards, assuming I am Jewish (religiously) which is annoying. But if I just say, “I’m German” people don’t believe me, since I don’t look like a German, (an Aryan one, that is.)
So I’m confused. What do I call myself? An American German non-practicing Jew Atheist Taoist Libertarian? I’m confused.
IMHO, labels should be the choice of the labeled. In reality, especially in the case of being Jewish, it also often reflects to expectations and attitudes of the outside world. Luckily, in the U.S. being Jewish isn’t the 100% life-changing status that is was, has been and still is in many places.
Also there are millions of Jews who consider themselves Jewish by heritage but don’t know thing one about the religion or culture. There are other religious Jews who don’t consider other people to be really Jewish if they don’t know anything about it, or if they don’t practice.
So, it’s a very complicated matter.
But why should you say that you’re German? If people really want to know where your ancestors are from and you’re not comfortable about saying that they were Jewish, why not say: “They were from all over Europe” or something like that.
And, btw, Germans can have a wide variety of appearances.
But please, do not use the term “Aryan” Germans. First, the word was misused by the Nazis for political reasons. It historically meant Northern Indian/Iranian – notice the similarity Aryan-Iranian, and was used by the Nazis to mean people of Indo-European and non-Semitic stock (which, since all people are mixed all over was complete rubbish to begin with). Secondly, it was used by the Nazis to mean all Germans, even the dark ones who just happened not to be Jewish. The blond, blue-eyed Jewish Germans were of course not “Aryan”.
You, are indeed Jewish, at least according to your lineage.
My family is eastern european(mainly Lithuanian and russian), not particularly religious either, yet we all identify very strongly with the Jews as a culture. My father was not Jewish(he identified with Judaism when he passed away), but since the person who birthed me is, I am(not to mention his family was from Lithuania as well, and there might have been some mixing there).
Like the Thill said, it’s your choice what you wish to be. I’m not Jewish by religion, but I wear the Star of David and the Hai on my necklace. I also wear a Barbed-wire star of David with the Hai in the middle and “Shalom” written around the outside of the star in Hebrew, in a tattoo on my upper arm(I can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery, but we’re not Orthodoxy, so we cremate our passed-on family).
In accordance with Jewish law, you are Jewish if your mother was Jewish. She was if her mother was, and so on as far back as you would like to go.
Of course, since it is Jewish law, if you choose not to accept it as your law, then you can call yourself anything you like. Others may continue to see you as Jewish, however, assuming you tell them that this is the case. Logically, however, once can always say that it is nearly impossible to determine how far Jewish lineage does or does not go back. There are millions of Europeans (and thus Americans)today who don’t know of their mother’s mother’s mother’s…mother having been Jewish, and thus don’t realize that they too might be considered Jewish.
Ultimately, it is a cultural and/or religious matter, and in today’s post-modern world, often a matter of individual interpretation and choice.
you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it. just a little support there fella
by lineage, you are a Jew.
by your own choice, you are what you say you are, and people have to accept that for the most part, but if some type of illness ever occurs, and you need to tell the doctor about your heritage, it could be important as to the fact that some medical disorders are related to lineage/heritage in a way.
be all you can be!
friedo: “But most people then start sending me Chanukkah cards, assuming I am Jewish (religiously) which is annoying.”
Why would this be annoying? Do you feel this way about receiving Christmas cards? But if this will put your mind at ease, I should point out that there is no religious meaning to these cards. It is a recent custom to give them, in imitation of Christmas cards.
TheThill: “There are millions of Europeans (and thus Americans)today who don’t know of their mother’s mother’s mother’s…mother having been Jewish, and thus don’t realize that they too might be considered Jewish”.
I don’t think this is true. Any woman who lived many centuries ago is likely to have thousands of descendents alive today, but only because of the many possible ways in which people could descent from her. But the amount of daughter’s daughter’s daughter’s… that she will have is much much smaller. So it wouldn’t be millions. In any event, though Jewish identity is matrilineal, it is not at all clear that someone whose Jewish identity has been completely lost over the generations and has been subsumed into the surrounding Gentile culture is still considered Jewish.
I’m agreeing with most of the earlier responses, but adding my tuppence. Note that there are at least two ways of answering your question: the way you perceive yourself, and the way you are perceived by others.
Under Jewish law (See the Mailbag: Can an atheist still be Jewish?), being Jewish is being a member of a people. One can get in by birth (maternal line, as you did), or by religious conversion (accepting the obligations of the peoplehood.) Thus, in the eyes of Judaism, you are Jewish.
Part of the question is, what are you in your own eyes?
And other questions:
Under Israeli law, you are Jewish by virtue of your maternal ancestry. Thus, if you wanted to move to Israel and claim citizenship, you could do so. They would ask you if you are Jewish, and you would say yes. They wouldn’t qualify it with “secular” or “unlearned” or “atheist.”
The Nazis would also look at your parentage and declare you Jewish, and off to the camps you go. The acid test, IMHO: if the Nazis didn’t know you are Jewish, and ask you, what would you say? Or, maybe easier, if the Inquisition tells you that you can convert and live, what would you say?
If you were about to be married, and your prospective in-laws were devout [MMMPHF]ists, and asked you what religion you were, what would you say?
Agreed, this is certainly an “acid test”, but they sent MY ancestors off to the same camps, and they were buried in the same mass graves, but we were not Jewish, just Slavic. I know what you are getting at , tho.
IMHO your are Jewish by heritage, not religion. And I get an occ. Chanukkah card myself, and I value them for the thought, just as Christmas cards.
Precisely. And many of these ways have been obscured by time.
It is a good point that it is a smaller number than it would otherwise be, but it would still be an astonishingly large number of people who would be Jewish according to the Halakha (Jewish Law)
Yes, I agree. Culturally these people have absolutely no connection to Jewishness. But since we’re talking about descent, and not culture, they would then technically be Jewish in accordance with Jewish Law. Or not?
Anyway, my original point is that if you do not subscribe to Jewish Law, you can call yourself whatever you want.
TheThill: “it would still be an astonishingly large number of people who would be Jewish according to the Halakha (Jewish Law)”.
I would think that you would take the number of people (of European descent) that are alive today and divide by the European population alive at a given historical time period. This should give the ratio of straight male-line or female-line descendents that a person from that historical time period will likely have today. I would suggest that this number is not too high for most of the last 1000 years (maybe 5 or 10 to 1 on average). Then you need some estimate for the number of Jewish women who have, over the centuries given birth to children who have become gentiles, and multiply accordingly. I’ll bet the final answer is not astonishingly large.
“But since we’re talking about descent, and not culture, they would then technically be Jewish in accordance with Jewish Law. Or not?”
Again, I believe this is not necessarily true. I once saw someone quoting a halachic source which stated otherwise. However, as this issue has no practical relevance, there is very little discussion of it in halachic sources. So I wouldn’t say anything definitive.
Daniel quotes me: << - The Nazis would also look at your parentage and declare you Jewish, and off to the camps you go. The acid test, IMHO: >>
He then goes on to say: << Agreed, this is certainly an “acid test”, but they sent MY ancestors off to the same camps, and they were buried in the same mass graves, but we were not Jewish, just Slavic. I know what you are getting at , tho. >>
Daniel, you’ve misread me. What I said was:
<<- The Nazis would also look at your parentage and declare you Jewish, and off to the camps you go. The acid test, IMHO: if the Nazis didn’t know you are Jewish, and ask you, what would you say? >>
Note the period after the word “go” and the semicolon after “IMHO.” I was not saying that acid test [of being Jewish] was being carted off by the Nazis, who did indeed murder many non-Jews. I was saying that the acid test is admitting to being Jewish, when you know it will lead to physical harm (or death.)
This is why the Ethiopean Jews were accepted as Jewish. They were given the choice of conversion or persecution, and they chose persecution rather than submission. That makes them Jewish.
Ah, grammar, what subtle distinctions can be made.
Yes, I agree that the point is quite moot for this discussion. And since I’m not exactly what you would call a Talmudic scholar, I will refrain from attempting to decide who in Europe would be considered Jewish according to Jewish Law. But considering the fact that a great number of Jews have converted over the centuries, it would be interesting to determine how much of Europe today is of Jewish ancestry (female-line or not). Most Europeans in fact never think about this.
Culturally, this is of course a quite different matter.
This is really not something you have to worry about. It’s a matter of self-identification. Decide what you want to be and tell people that. I, for instance, am a native Hawai’ian. I do not let the fact that my great-great grandparents immigrated from England and Ireland, or that I was born in Germany alter the facts as I see them.
CK has answered the question, but I would like to point something out:
The idea that Jews with tattoos cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetary is a UL. I have not read the Halacha on this, but I did read an article on the topic in a Jewish magazine about a year ago, and several rabbis (of various movements) stated that while they would not approve of tattoos, neither would they make someone a complete pariah.
Kyla, far from being a Pariah, IIRC, the only reason tattoos are allowed at all is because of the holocaust.
It’s a non-issue to me because we are a crematory family, but I spoke to a Rabbi prior to my tattoo and he seemed to be of the opinion that it wasn’t the most welcome physical trait. Of course, that might have been because of the religious bend of my tattoo, but I don’t know.
just a little support there fella