Ask Auntie Pinko
August 21, 2003

Dear Auntie Pinko,

I am curious about what makes a Jewish person a Jew. To me, it seems like more of a question of religion than one of race. Can an atheist still belong to the Jewish "race?" And if it really is just about religion, then how did the Holocaust happen, and what is going on in Israel?

Margaret,
Tulsa, OK

Dear Margaret,

A complicated question, especially for someone like Auntie Pinko, who is not Jewish!

However, I have many dear friends who are Jewish, and your question formed the basis for some wonderful discussions. I hope I am remembering and reporting them accurately - if not, please attribute any distortions or inaccuracies to Auntie's aging memory circuits, and not to bad source information or malice. The word "Jewish" covers a wide territory indeed, including religious faith, cultural heritage, and ancestry (which is not the same as race.) Let's deal with the "race" issue first, because that is the slipperiest, most difficult area to understand.

It's difficult partly because the very term "race" is so imprecise, except as a shorthand to describe groups of other characteristics. With the unlocking of the human genome, it has become clear that in the scientific sense, there are either thousands of human "races," or only one, depending on how you slice it. We can now use DNA analysis to determine with surprising accuracy the geographic areas from which our ancestors hailed, and the tribes, groups, clans, and nations to which they may have belonged.

But are ancestral geographic origins, tribes, etc., a "race?" And if so, how much of what kind of ancestry determines a person's "race?"

In thinking about the concept of "race" and Jewish identity, we have to take into account the Diaspora of the Jewish people that has been going on for thousands of years. Although they originally coalesced as a people with a distinct religion, national identity, and cultural heritage in the region of the Middle East we now know as Israel, even in ancient times they wandered widely (voluntarily and involuntarily) throughout the region. The Roman conquest and the partitioning and ultimate dissolution of the Jewish states of Judea and Samaria initiated a much wider Diaspora that ultimately sent Jews to almost every part of the world.

Over hundreds of years, Jewish people living in every part of the world mingled with their neighbors and absorbed the genetic heritage of their adopted regions. Jewish families who located on the North African coast in the seventh and eighth centuries have a different DNA profile than Jewish families who settled in Russia and Poland in the ninth and tenth centuries. But they are all still Jewish.

The question of religion is almost as slippery. There are a variety of religious practice traditions among Jews, and a wide variety of choices among Jewish people about just how closely they might wish to observe those traditions. Someone born in a Jewish family might choose to reject religion altogether and embrace atheism, yet most Jewish people would still identify that person as a "non-observant Jew."

So is it possible to "become" Jewish? Or do you have to be born into a Jewish family to be Jewish? I was surprised to hear different nuances in the answers from my Jewish friends. They all agreed that it was possible for a Gentile to convert to the Jewish religion, and they agreed that while there is no imperative among Jewish people to proselytize or convert others to their faith, they welcome those who choose to share their beliefs and observances.

But I heard some interesting differences of opinion about whether conversion alone is sufficient to make someone "Jewish." Some of the more strictly observant Jews indicated that Jewish identity is passed through family heritage, and that while it is possible that if a convert married into a Jewish family, their children might be indisputably "Jewish," the convert themselves would remain essentially a converted Gentile. Gender plays a role in this for some Jewish people, as well, since some aspects of Jewish family identity are passed through the mother.

By this time, as you can imagine, Auntie Pinko was quite intrigued about the whole notion of "Jewish." I think one friend said it best "Judaism is a religion, Jewish is a family/cultural heritage, Israeli is a nationality. You can be all three or any one or any combination."

As to how the Holocaust happened, Margaret, there is unfortunately no mystery about it. Sadly, human beings appear to have a certain affinity for turning ignorance and fear into hatred and violence. When this affinity is exploited by evil individuals with political ambitions, it can produce monstrous results. The Holocaust was a particularly widespread, large-scale, thorough, and cruel manifestation of this exploitation, made possible by centuries of European anti-Semitism and the economic and geopolitical realities of the time.

What is going on in Israel/Palestine is yet more tragic examples of ignorance and fear turning into hatred and violence, often being exploited by evil individuals with political ambitions, and sometimes made worse by well-intentioned individuals with preconceived notions and/or incomplete information. Unfortunately no one is immune - not even those who have been victimized by this cycle in the past.

I hope I've been helpful to you Margaret, and thanks for asking Auntie Pinko!