Who Is a Real Jew?

[dtotire]

The 'Real Jew' Debate
By ROGER COHEN
Published: December 9, 2010




LONDON — Ira Stup was raised in Philadelphia attending Jewish day school and camps. He found his home in the Jewish community and was “intoxicated with Jewish democracy” as framed in the ideals of Israel’s foundation. Now he has returned deeply troubled from a one-year fellowship based in Tel Aviv.
Damon Winter/The New York Times



The worst single incident occurred on Ben Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem. Stup, 24, a Columbia graduate, was returning from a rally with a couple of friends carrying a banner that said, “Zionists are not settlers.” A group of religious Jews wearing yarmulkes approached, spat on them and started punching.

“About 20 people saw the whole thing and just watched. They were screaming, ‘You are not real Jews.’ Most of them were American. It was one of the most disappointing moments of my life — you can disagree as much as you want with a banner but to allow violence and not react is outrageous. For me it was a turning point. Nobody previously had said I was not a real Jew.”

The view that American Jews supportive of Israel but critical of its policies are not “real Jews” is, however, widespread. Israel-right-or-wrong continues to be the core approach of major U.S. Jewish organizations, from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/opinion/10iht-edcohen.html?hp

[slackmaster]

1. I've been called one many times

And I'm not even Jewish.

More than one Jewish mom has told me "You're more Jewish than my own son!"

[theoldman]

2. Christian Americans don't know squat about the Jewish people.

They think that all Jewish people think the same way. Jewish people are as politically divided as American Christians.

[aquart]

3. I know. It's a shocking mentality to run into, though.

[texastoast]

4. Someone who

goes to the Jewish temple, worships Yahweh, the god of Abraham, and says, "I'm Jewish"?

:shrug:

[oberliner]

5. What if you don't go to temple and don't believe in any god?

But your parents are Jewish and you identify yourself culturally as Jewish (i.e. have a big family dinner on Passover, but do not go to any services, etc).

[texastoast]

6. I don't know

I know some folks like that. They call themselves non-practicing Jews, but to me Judaism is tied to religious practices.

[LeftishBrit]

7. Disagree - many Jews, including many Israelis, are totally secular

For many it is a cultural/ethnic matter, rather than a religious one.

[texastoast]

8. Works for me.

Whatever floats their boat and is conducive to world peace.

[mudplanet]

9. How much do you want to bet that the bigoted "religious" that started

the fight had all opted out of military service on religious exemptions?

[oberliner]

10. Most of them were Americans

No need to jump through any such hoops in this country not to serve in the military.

[mudplanet]

11. AFAIK military service is compulsory in Israel except in certain

circumstances.

[oberliner]

12. The article suggests that they were American, not Israeli

I got the impression that, like the author, they were just visiting Israel and were not themselves Israeli (otherwise why did the author indicate that they were American?).

[Madam Mossfern]

13. You are a real Jew is you subscribe to

Rabbi Hillel's wisdom:

The piety which Hillel evinced was bound up with a great measure of forbearance toward others. Asked by a would-be proselyte to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot, Shammai had angrily driven the man away; but Hillel finally replied with the adage: "What is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow man; this is the whole Torah, all the rest is commentary. Now go and learn!" (Shab. 31a). Hillel considered this "golden rule" not only the best introduction to Judaism for a neophyte but also its sum total.




http://www.answers.com/topic/hillel

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. That's nothing to do with being a Jew, real or otherwise.

It's a nice-sounding platitude, not anything to do with the actual definition of Judaism - there isn't even a strong correlation between being Jewish and the extent to which one follows that.

[oberliner]

15. It has everything to do with being a Jew

It is, in fact, the fundamental guiding principle of Jewish moral law.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. It has everything to do with being a good person.

It is arguably one of the teachings of the Jewish religion.

It has nothing to do with whether one is a member of the Jewish people.

If your mother is halachically Jewish then so are you, no matter how you live your life.

[Ken Burch]

22. And it's why the Occupation is totally AGAINST Jewish moral law.

As are all the West Bank settlements.

[Madam Mossfern]

17. No...

Perhaps you should read up about Hillel. It is the guiding principal of Judaism. I would say that those who build settlements and harass Palestinian farmers for just their existence are not really Jews.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Then you would be wrong.

You are conflating "following the moral teachings of Judaism, as I understand them" with "being a member of the Jewish people".

If your mother is Jewish under Halachic law (as mine is) then so are you, regardless of how you live your life.

[Madam Mossfern]

21. Halacha schmelacha

Yes, I am Jewish, but there are those who would dispute that because I don't agree with their fundamentalist beliefs. I would question their Judaism if they made sure that they tore their toilet paper before shabbat, but burned down Palestinian olive groves (not on shabbat of course.)

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
BTW, you do know that there are Jewish movements that would also say that a child born of a Jewish father is Jewish.

[aranthus]

16. As a practical matter, anyone who lives at least one element of Jewish identity is a Jew.

Under Orthodox Jewish law, anyone with a Jewish mother is a Jew. Other denominations loosen that to include either parent. However, the legal definition doesn't tell you much about a person. Consider if someone's parents were Catholic, but that person didn't believe in God, didn't follow Catholic tradition, and hated the Papacy. Are they Catholic? Not in any way that matters.

The elements of Jewish identity are three: God (religious belief), Torah (Jewish law and tradition), and Nation (culture and ethnicity). If someone lives one of them, I think most Jews would consider them a Jew. One may be culturally or ethnically Jewish without going to schul or believing in God. The one exception is if a Jew converts to another religion. I don't know of a mainstream denomination of Jews who considers a convert to another religion to still be a Jew (and Jewish law would certainly say that they were no longer a Jew).

Support for Israel is not one of the elements. There are religious Jews who don't support Israel's current existence at all, and they are still Jews. In fact, they would have harsh things to say about those who attacked Mr. Stup (Is that really his name? It sounds too close to a very rude Yiddish word. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it is his real name, and that's too bad for him.)

All of this is not to say that one can not at all question whether someone is Jewish. I have a big problem with people who trade on the fact that their parents were Jewish as cover for their making all manner of hatefully anti-Jewish statements. Likewise people who have no affinity or connection to anything Jewish who use their parentage as cover for attacks on Israel. People who are simply against the settlements aren't those people, however, and don't deserve to have their Jewishness called into question.

[bemildred]

20. "Who is a fake Jew?" is a better question.

The real Jews would then be all the Jews who are not fake. And the answer to that would tell whom it is that it is desired to cast outside the pale.