A covert what? Like a spy? 
Passing as Jewish.
Why don’t these women just marry non-Jewish men? Why does preserving some historical ethnic/religious group have to take precedent in their minds over the love and affection of real actual human beings?
Some people do not consider love or affection the end all and be all of life.
Jewish women marrying non-Jewish men doesn’t (in theory) impact ethnic group preservation, as Jewishness is generally considered by most Jews to be matrilinial.
So (in theory) they could marry non-Jewish men and not risk anything. Even Asian men, if they so chose.
Anyway, problem with the OP is that “Jewish women” have no actual spokesperson and so determining what “they” think en masse is gonna be difficult. Just like any other ethnicity or religion, some are gonna have a problem with it and some are not. Certainly rates of Jewish intermarriage in North America are very high, exactly because the actual cultural difference between most Jews and most non-Jews here is small, and the past prejudices (BOTH ways) are losing their grip rapidly.
Doesn’t exactly sound like the anecdotes about exclusionary Jews to me.
Gotta be clear about terms here: “ethnic group” does not equal “race”. There are obviously Jews of every race.
In fact, in anthropological terms, Judiasm most resembles a “tribal” identity - it is an affiliation you can obtain by virtue of either being born to someone who has it (in most but not all cases, matrilinially, as you point out) or by adoption into the tribe (by conversion if an adult or by adoption if a kid) - but the individual has the choice of rejecting it (for example, by conversion to a religion incompatible with Judaism).
Certainly not married life.
Come to the Bay Area. White women marrying asian men happens plenty nowadays.
A Manchurian candidate for marriage, if you will…
Exactly so. You can be a member of an ethnic group even if you’re not genetically related to the other members of the ethnic group. Just because Ethiopian Jews are genetically much more similar to other Ethiopians than they are to other Jews doesn’t mean they aren’t ethnically Jews. Ethnicity is not race, or religion, or nationality, or language. It is ethnicity. You can be black as the ace of spades and speak only Amharic and live in Ethiopia, or pale as milk and live in the United States speak only English, and still be Jewish.
Just like you can be a Navajo regardless of your ancestry or religion or language or nationality, as long as the other Navajo consider you to be a Navajo then you’re a Navajo.
Yes, I realize that. I’d like to point out, however, that there are lots of Jews who are NOT white who also have Jewish identities that are just as ethnocultural (however they define that) that they’d like to perpetuate. That holds true for me, an African-American Jew who is also a dyed-in-the-wool atheist.
Again, Jew shouldn’t, and doesn’t always = white.
Yes, I am acutely aware that “ethnic group” =/= “race”. And of the “tribal” identity, too. Does any of this invalidate anything that I said in my first post in this thread. I’m not aware that it does, but I’m interested in hearing another perspective if you have one.
Yeah, I, too, think it’s pretty cool that I’m a black Jew, but I should tell you that it’s actually not so…rare. As is also the case with, for instance, Asian and Hispanic Jews. In America. Then, again, I guess it depends on how you’re operationalizing “rare,” right?
No, I get what you mean. Here, in the U.S., for many people, Jew= white (and your point about there being a white, social club aspect to Jewishness in the States is well-taken), but the point that JOCs like me have been making for years is that this is simply incorrect. Thankfully, in the last 15 years or so, growing numbers of Jews (primarily Reform and Reconstructionist Jews) have been realizing this. (In some Reform and Reconstructionist shuls, you’ll see posters depicting a collage of people of various races that read, “Jews come in all colors”.)
(Interesting anecdote: Back in 1993 (it was '93, wasn’t it?), I was marching in that big gay rights march in Washington, D.C.. Because, you know, since my being black AND Jewish wasn’t confusing (or repulsive, as they case may be) enough for people, I just HAD to add being gay to the mix. So, I’m wearing my kippah, and I’m merrily marching along, and this middle-aged white woman, a supporter of gay rights, approaches me from the sidelines. She asks me if I’m gay, and she admits to being a little crestfallen when I tell her that I am. Her reason: her daughter liked black dudes, and mama wanted her to marry a Jew, and I, being both black and Jewish, could’ve given both of them what each wanted. Bless her heart, because, for her, “I’d like for my daughter to marry a Jew” didn’t equal, as, shamefully, it does for way too many people, “I’d like my daughter to marry white”. I liked her, and I wondered whatever happened in the end.)
With regard to Ethiopian Jewry: There’s a group of Jews in another African country (I should remember it, since a friend of mine actually traveled there and made a film about it, but my recall sucks at the moment) who, though they’ve been separated from other Jews for a long time, are indeed Jews because they practice many of the rituals that existed before rabbinic Judaism (which is what most Jews practice). I had to chuckle when, in one scene, there’s a group of these young, black African kids saying “El melech ne’eman” (basically, “God, trustworthy king,” which I immediately recognized to be part of the Bedtime Shema).
Thank you. I was born human and gay. I was raised Jewish and straight. My partner was born human and poly. He was raised Muslim and straight.
Together we are gay/poly atheists.
So nu, what’s not to understand?
I don’t have to travel- in my own local church, I know several couples like the ones you describe. But that doesn’t change the fact that Asian males often resent (loudly) Asian women who go for white guys.
I think I need a diagram for that post.
I’ve heard this too. I think, like the woman in the OP, a bit of projection is going on. In other words, the complainer is blaming lack of dating success on lack of inventory rather than actual personal flaws.
It should at least take precedent over purposeful segregation.
LOL!
Sorry, but I’m just seeing this (it’s been a hell of a semester–baruch Hashem that it’s finally over!), and you’re welcome.
Your extended family gatherings (assuming that you go) must be interesting. But, then, it’s not really fun unless you give 'em something to talk about, is it?