# Can you be Jewish without being Jewish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2006, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857 "2006-08-01T08:13:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/21 "2006-08-01T23:15:05Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] You could be a [Samaritan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan) – yes, there are still a few Samaritans around. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but are any of them good? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/22 "2006-08-02T03:32:34Z")
[QUOTE=Dpimi] If you convert to Judaism, you are considered a “Jew by conversion.” If a woman is a “Jew by conversion,” all her children will be considered a “Jew by birth.” [/QUOTE] I don’t think there’s much of a distinction between Jew by conversion and Jew by birth. Once your conversion is complete, you’re simply a Jew. If you had kids before your conversion, then yes, they would have to convert, but I don’t believe there are any other distinctions. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/23 "2006-08-02T04:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=Zahava424] Jews would not consider Karaites a form of Judaism. In fact, they’ve made some trouble for Jews in the past. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > The state of Israel, along with its Chief Rabbinate, ruled that Karaites are Jews, and while critical differences between Orthodox Judaism and Karaite Judaism exist, American Orthodox rabbis ruled that Karaism is much closer to Orthodoxy than the Conservative and Reform movements, which may ease issues of formal conversion. Excerpted from [Jewish schisms - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schisms_among_the_Jews) ---
**Author:** ![Zahava424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@Zahava424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zahava424)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/24 "2006-08-02T04:44:40Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] Perhaps, but Jews don’t believe in an afterlife in the same way that some other religions do. [/QUOTE] I’ve run into this misconception several times on the boards. Let me just say that this statement is not true of Orthodox Judaism, which strongly believes that when you die, you are rewarded/punished in the afterlife. There is a heaven (called _Gan Eiden_, the Garden of Eden, though it’s not necessarily the literal place where Adam and Eve used to live) and, in Christian terms, a purgatory, known as _Gehinnom._ According to what I’ve read of Orthodox authorities’ (primarily [Nachmanides’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachmanides)) views on this, there is no eternal Hell; people work off their sins in punishment in Gehinnom and then go on to receive whatever reward they deserve in Gan Eiden. Orthodox Jews believe that it’s proper to maintain an awareness that this world in only temporary and that our focus should be on doing what’s right; ie, what will count when the chips are down in the afterlife. Because Jewish theologians had not, you know, been dead when they did their writings, and because there’s an emphasis on doing right for right’s sake rather than because you know the exact heaven market value for your good deeds, the details of the afterlife are rather less than fleshed out, and the concept is taught in the abstract, but it is not treated as unimportant. ---
**Author:** ![Zahava424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@Zahava424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zahava424)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/25 "2006-08-02T04:50:21Z")
[QUOTE=mks57] Quote: [QUOTE=Zahava424] Jews would not consider Karaites a form of Judaism. In fact, they’ve made some trouble for Jews in the past. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > The state of Israel, along with its Chief Rabbinate, ruled that Karaites are Jews, and while critical differences between Orthodox Judaism and Karaite Judaism exist, American Orthodox rabbis ruled that Karaism is much closer to Orthodoxy than the Conservative and Reform movements, which may ease issues of formal conversion. Excerpted from [Jewish schisms - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schisms_among_the_Jews) [/QUOTE] Interesting. I was not aware of this, though I would point out that for the State of Israel (unlike the people of Israel), who is considered a Jew is a politically contentious issue, as a Jew can legally obtain Israeli citizenship at any time. The question is far from settled. I believe that children of Jewish fathers, while not Jewish by religious strandards, are sometimes considered Jewish for the purposes of citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/26 "2006-08-02T05:13:41Z")
[QUOTE=Zahava424] I’ve run into this misconception several times on the boards. Let me just say that this statement is not true of Orthodox Judaism, which strongly believes that when you die, you are rewarded/punished in the afterlife. There is a heaven (called _Gan Eiden_, the Garden of Eden, though it’s not necessarily the literal place where Adam and Eve used to live) and, in Christian terms, a purgatory, known as _Gehinnom._ According to what I’ve read of Orthodox authorities’ (primarily [Nachmanides’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachmanides)) views on this, there is no eternal Hell; people work off their sins in punishment in Gehinnom and then go on to receive whatever reward they deserve in Gan Eiden. [/QUOTE] How much of that is outside influence from Zoroastrianism and Christianity? From some of my readings, there seemed to be a noticeable leakage of medieval Christian ideas about Heaven and Hell into medieval Judaism in Europe. As far as contemporary practice is concerned, other than vague references to the world to come (Olam Haba), it doesn’t get much attention. I’d boil it down to “the righteous (Tzaddikim) get the best seats”. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/28 "2014-10-26T12:25:11Z")
I’d just like to point out that this thread is 8 years old, and the OP has apparently been banned. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857/29 "2014-10-26T13:54:58Z")
> [@Daniel\_Thomas\_Andrew\_Daly](#): > > [http://noahidebooks.angelfire.com](http://noahidebooks.angelfire.com) 😕 What _is_ this? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-jewish-without-being-jewish/366857.md?page=1)