There is arguably no more challenging question for the Jewish community than, "Who's a Jew?" It continually arises, over issues ranging from politics (most recently, the ultra-Orthodox control over Israeli conversions) to entertainment and even sports (is Amar'e or isn't he?). One thing is certain: the overwhelming majority of Jews globally were born into it. There's more than a little truth to the expression "members of the tribe."
For those not born Jewish, joining the Jewish religion requires overcoming high barriers, even within the more liberal streams of Judaism. To put it in its simplest terms: for men, blood must be drawn. Get past the circumcision, the studying, and the meetings with rabbis to become an official Jew, and there is often still, shamefully, some other Jew questioning a convert's sincerity or authenticity.
Ultimately I believe the guidelines of "Who's a Jew?" must be expanded if the Jewish community -- particularly the American Jewish community -- is to remain relevant well into the 21st century.
There's precedent for changing the answer to "Who's a Jew?" In Biblical times, our forbears inherited Judaism through their fathers. In the Rabbinic age, it switched to the mothers, and the notion of "matrilineal descent" is still deeply ingrained in much of world Jewry today. But in modern times, the Reconstructionist movement (in 1968) and then the much larger Reform movement (in 1983) accepted Jewish identity through either parent -- provided that the children were raised and educated as Jews.
That bold decision to accept patrilineal descent has enabled literally hundreds of thousands of individuals to call themselves "Jewish" who previously couldn't, which many Jews support but others believe is a terrible disaster for the Jewish people. At the time, and for years after, the Reform movement was accused of splitting the Jewish people in two. But the reality is that we were always more than just two kinds of Jewry.
Today, while there are still only a few different synagogue denominations, there are hundreds of ways for Jews to express their Jewish identity. And that diversity could bode well for the Jewish future, because the American belief in the "marketplace of ideas" has extended to religions as well. Last year's "Faith in Flux" study from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that "about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives."
Unfortunately, until now the religion-switching that Pew identified has meant a net loss for Judaism. It makes sense, considering how much easier it is to leave Judaism than to enter! But the past does not have to dictate the future. If only we could "open the gates" of Judaism, as the late researcher Gary Tobin advocated, and offer all the various ways of being Jewish, many more people might choose to join us.
Absorbing large waves of newcomers is a scary proposition for many Jews, even in Israel, a country that has proven that it can do it over and over again. For American Jews, particularly the majority who are not religiously observant but are still connected culturally or "ethnically," the notion that anyone would actually be attracted to Judaism often seems baffling, though it shouldn't. In many cases, newcomers see the values in our traditions even better than those of us who grew up in the community.
This inability to graciously accept newcomers is a phenomenon I call "Born-Jewish Privilege." It is a Born-Jewish Privilege to be able to ask someone, immediately upon learning that he or she is a convert, "You mean you actually chose to become Jewish?" -- even as an attempted joke. And it is a Born-Jewish Privilege to then turn around (at perhaps the very same event!) and ask the non-Jewish spouse of a Jew, "Do you plan to convert?"
It is a Born-Jewish Privilege to not do a single thing Jewish all year -- not attend synagogue, not observe Shabbat, not donate to Jewish causes -- yet feel completely 100-percent Jewish while at the same time questioning the authenticity of an intermarried household where the non-Jewish parent is doing all of those things in order to instill a Jewish identity in his or her child.
Overcoming Born-Jewish Privilege will be very difficult, because the privileged are always loath to give up their status. But pointing out that the privilege even exists, by a simple accident of birth, is the first step. Helping Jews recognize that there's something worth sharing about Judaism with the rest of the world seems like another logical step. That Amar'e Stoudemire's recent Jewish journey would provoke such fascination in the Jewish community a full decade after Madonna embraced Kabbalah, or that Chelsea Clinton marrying a Jew would require so much open soul-searching about Jewish intermarriage when more than half of all American households containing a Jewish spouse today are intermarriages, means we're still stuck in the same place as we were decades ago, without providing increased access for more people to make the Jewish journey with us.
In most cases, it doesn't really matter "Who's a Jew," because it's rarely an issue of halakhah (Jewish law). If Amar'e wants to read from the Torah at a Conservative synagogue during Shabbat services, we'll worry about it then. Odds are good that he doesn't want that. Odds are also good that Jews will trip over themselves helping him find what he's looking for, because he's a superstar. (And as a long-suffering Knicks fan, I have no problem with that.) But what about the million non-Jews married to Jews in the U.S., almost all of whom are not famous like Amar'e? Or the children and young adults from intermarried families? What is the Jewish community doing proactively to incorporate them? Still too little.
Some have attempted to find special names for the non-Jews among us, like ger toshav (resident alien), but how about, for those who want it, "Jewish"? Intermarried families raising Jewish children are, as Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, simply calls them, "Jewish families."
The Jewish community does not have a unifying creed that can easily be signed onto, the way you can call yourself Christian by accepting Jesus as Savior. There's a Jewish movement that accepts the Torah as the exact word of God, and a Jewish movement that denies the existence of God; there are Jews for whom Zionism is their most important belief, and Jews who reject the establishment of the modern State of Israel as immoral. There is scant little we agree on, and we need to define ourselves to newcomers based on what we are, not what we're not. The Biblical Ruth had a simple credo as her "conversion" to Judaism: "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." The "people" in that phrase came before God for a reason. Would it be so bad for the Jews if we reverted back to that kind of conversion?
Or perhaps we can draw our credo from Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, who is quoted as having said, "I consider as Jewish anyone who is meshuge [crazy] enough to call themselves 'Jewish.'"
Follow Paul Golin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulgolin
Conversion to Judaism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This view isn't universal, as the author said. It's held by various Orthodox groups and by some other traditional Jews.In my community (Reform, North America), your father counts, too. Let's be clear and honest please.
our habit of identity as labels is too limiting; FIRST as Christ said seek ye the infinite ; that which pervades us all
FIRST be a human being ; in context of this particular blog about jewish identity this sounds insulting ; i dont mean anyone is not a human being ; i mean how much potential are we able to live , again emphasizing all > 6 000 000 000 persons
and referring to all blogs of this kind what is a buddhist what is a christian what is a modern what is a old fashioned
what is a human being : human by virtue of a individual physical nervous system and divine by virtue of Being
here in a big book one would enter a dissertation on DHARMA universal dharma personal dharma community dharama.... dharma as a not man-made vedic word : Da - Dhi -Hari -Rishi- Rama- Ma that from the sanskrit [ not manmade language ] roots of dharma is dharma dynamics.
....from me i know i am a typical human failure : infinite potential but at the end of the day how much has been accomplished by doing and not doing
5-10% maybe 5-10% of infinity would be sufficient but 5-10% [ as William James i believe indicated we are using ] of human is not much
i hope this is helpful
Do Jews and Arab Muslims have equal rights in Israel when it comes to property rights, voting, running for office, residency, etc.?
My paternal grandfather was Jewish.
Tradition says that because I didn't carry the blood from my mother's side I'm not a Jew.
Had I married a Jewish man, we would have been tested for Tay Sachs...because even though tradition says I am not, genetics say I am...and therefore could have carried a bad recessive.
I didn't marry A Jewish man...should I deny my Grandfather's blood? If I had never told my daughter about her heritage, would I not be a "self hating jew?"
Why would you deny your grandfather's blood? And by definition, you wouldn't be a self-hating Jew. Good luck to you.
i guess I never understood how religion was an inherited trait. She raises a good question about Tay Sachs though. I never actually thought of that.
Sammy Davis was a converted Jew.... doesn't mean his ethnicity changed
I know a LOT of non practicing ISRAELI secular Jews.
After conversion I discovered that my mother's mother was Jewish and had escaped the Nazis and took on a new identity in the US. It blew my mind. When I decided to study in a yeshiva in Jerusalem the rabbis were fascinated with my story and told me that my neshama (Jewish soul) had pulled me home.
I'm glad it is not easy to become Jewish. It's a tremendous responsibility that often feels like a burden. People really need to understand what they're signing up for.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While there are numerous values to the Jewish tradition it IS baffling that folks would join. Firstly it's exclusivity is a pronounced tradition and Jews are defined as a cultural/ethnic group as well as a religious group.Also, there has been an 'otherness' to being Jewish that is maintained as a source of pride and superiority.
Sadly with all religions it becomes a numbers game and the Jewish Orthodox / Hassiddic community addresses this by having painfully large families (painful that is to the poor Orthodox women bearing over 5 children as well as to the planet).
Unlike Christianity/Catholicism or Islam, Judaism holds that the decision to convert is absolutely personal, and must not be made under "pressure" of any sort. Once someone has become a Jew, s/he is a Jew, and it is forbidden for anyone to use the word "convert" with reference to him/her. However, as I mentioned previously, this view regarding proselytizing is under the gun, so to speak, from young Jews across the spectrum. The fact that "otherness" has been visited upon us by the gentiles, that we have been so historically victimized and continue to be, that we are then are accused of having a sense of "superiority" suggests that multiplying is a good idea if we care to survive as whole human beings.
Religious Christians/Catholics, Muslims have large, large families. And they evangelize away. Something to consider for us J people.
----------------------------------------------
There is a very simple solution, the simplest in the world, whose efficacy has been demonstrated. We need to proseltyze. Many years ago, a Ugandan serving in the British army, did convert to Judaism, returned to Uganda, and converted thousands of others.
Proseltyze. Seek converts as so many younger Jews of all denominations are recommending. It will begin. It would be better for the establishment to accept it sooner rather than later.
Another point I would make is that for as long as we have religions among us, Judaism, the "ethical" religion, is not a bad path to choose.
I would like to second your opinion of Judaism. Jewish law is almost entirely about our obligations to each other, rather than promises of eternal bliss. There are a few mentions of an afterlife in Jewish writings, but these references are very rare.
There is nothing to prohibit anyone from considering themselves whatever they want to (look at the the Kaballah Centre followers). There is a legal definition of who is a Jew, just as there are many legal definitions that exclude anyone, Jew or not.
Do I agree with the amount of stringency applied to this consideration - yes, if it exposes fraud.
If Jews can go up to others who say they are Jews and tell them they are not Jews, then what else will they be able to do to them? Imprison them? Turn them away from Israel? Cut them off? It is a very slippery slope
--------------------------------------------------
...and still they build those settlements and claim a religious right to these lands.
Secular? I think not.