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Half Jew - Page 1
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Page 1
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Author: InterfaithFamily.com Editor (---.home.net)
Date: 09-07-00 14:29
What do you think of Susan Jacoby's book, "Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past"? |
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| "Half-Jew" |
Author: Jack Bonawitz (216.166.134.---)
Date: 09-11-00 12:56
The term "half-Jew" only makes sense if one believes Jews are a distinct race.
Judaism demands that we live in this world, obeying the precepts laid out in the Torah. Either you do that and you are Jewish, or you don't and you're not. |
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| Can inter marrriege really work? |
Author: Bella (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 09-11-00 14:24
Im in a relaitionship with a guy hu is not jewish. My parent are devistated. But im in love with him. I want to make it work it turns out that i must choose between my old life or the life which im about to choose. The life with him. He suggested we move furthure from NY but its running away from problems here and hopefully not having problems somewhere else. Working it out. Im having world war 3 inside of me. And im scared and confused.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
Bella |
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| Bella |
Author: Ellen (---.milwaukee.k12.wi.us)
Date: 09-11-00 18:44
Bella:
Whether your relationship will work depends on a number of questions.
How long have you known this man? How well do you know him? How do you know you're really in love? How do you define love?
What do you want your life to be like five years from now? Ten years from now? Twenty years from now? Fifty years from now?
Will you ever want to have children? What will you want their lives to be like?
How old are you? How well do you know yourself?
What is it about this man that makes you so sure you need to be with him?
Have you ever been in love before? What kinds of patterns keep reappearing in your romantic relationships? How is this relationship different from all your other relationships?
If your answer to most of the above questions is "I don't know" then it might be a wise idea to wait a few years and develop a better understanding of your feelings before you marry anyone. |
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| Half-Jew |
Author: Susan Katz Miller (---.as.wcom.net)
Date: 09-18-00 11:14
Jack,
So a "full-blooded" Jew who ignores the Torah is not a Jew, by your definition. Let alone a matrilineal Jew who ignores the Torah. This would be consistent, but most Jews would disagree. Perhaps unfortunately, Jewish law does take into account biology. I only wish there was consistency, one way or the other, on matrilineality and patrilineality.
Jews are not a race. But Ashkenazic Jews are a major cultural force in America, and half-Jews are affected by this legacy. Officially-sanctioned Jews may get to decide who is a Jew. But I don't think you can stop people from defining themselves as half-Jews. Our only other choice is to deny, ignore, repudiate, one half of our cultural legacy.
Sue, a Half-Jew |
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| Dear Susan Katz Miller |
Author: rus (---.s920.apx1.sbo.ma.dialup.rcn.com)
Date: 04-03-01 10:39
Dear Susan Katz Miller,
I caught an essay of yours on the Boston based National Public Radio station and I found it provocative. I felt triumphant when you described the "binocular vision" of children of interfaith marriage, but I was troubled with your comment that the Third Reich's policy of murdering anyone with even one Jewish grandparent compells all interfaith children to identify as Jews. Forgive me if I am taking this out of context.
Presuming I understood what you meant, I find this to be self-victimizing notion. Nazi-logic has no place in the long, difficult process interfaith children go through to settle on an identity. For me the final decision lies in assessing the direction of one's inner compass of spirituality and ethnic composition; it was a merely a choice of which world made me the most comfortable. Regardless of the seemingly urgent necessity of Jews to continue the "race" and faith of their fathers, one cannot let the preoccupations of others steer or guilt one into a particular direction. To choose Judiasm based on the needs of others produces only adults filled with unfulfilled longing for something else while they feel out of their skin. We don't owe our soul to dogma, ideology or guilt to correct crimes against humanity we never committed ourselves.
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| letting others define us? |
Author: Susan (---.milwaukee.k12.wi.us)
Date: 04-18-01 09:06
I did not hear Susan Katz Miller's piece on NPR, but I'm going to presume to argue with rus, anyway. When one decides to throw one's lot in with "The Jewish People," it is not a purely idiosyncratic, personal, private choice. One isn't doing so in a social vacuum. History shows us that Jews have been subjected to discrimination and persecution on occasion, and a person who identifies with Jews could be liable to face the same treatment. What we need is people willing to take the good with the bad, not fair weather Jews who want to have their cake and eat it, too.
P.S. I'm a Half Jew, too. |
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| puzzled |
Author: B (65.193.99.---)
Date: 11-04-01 17:48
I'm Baptist, my husband is Jewish, and shortly I will give birth to our first child. Long before we were engaged, we explored and felt we had resolved the religion question and would raise our children culturally Jewish while retaining some of the Christian tenets that are important to me. We are reconsidering that decision after hearing time and again that our child likely won't be accepted as Jewish because of his biological pedigree despite being raised Jewish. As an outsider looking in, I am puzzled by an otherwise beautiful religion that laments "losing" it's children yet rejects their offspring. |
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| Jewish Law |
Author: Len-B (---.ptc.com)
Date: 11-05-01 13:38
B,
I’m sorry to hear about your dilemma and I wanted to give you some insight into your problem. Since you are not Jewish your child will not be considered Jewish according to Jewish law. From a historical perspective you can know with 100% certainty the mother of a child but can the same be true of the father? In other words, this was put in place to preserve the lineage of the child, if the mother is Jewish there is no question about the lineage however if the mother is not Jewish without genetic testing, which certainly didn’t exist back then, you can not prove 100% that the child’s father is who the mother/father say he is.
Having said all of this, the Reform movement will accept patrilineal children as Jews, i.e. the father was Jewish. The other option is if it’s a boy to have the child converted during the bris and I’m sure there is something similar for the girls. In fact the conversion process during the bris basically interjects a few extra words into the ceremony, you get a conversion certificate and there are no more questions. The tough part would be to find an orthodox rabbi to do this conversion.
Most importantly is finding a community to belong to. One thing you will find is that the different streams of Judaism are very cliquey and sometimes they don’t get along with each other very well, to the point where one group may not consider another group “Jewish”. Find a group of like-minded people and practice Judaism with them, don’t try and fit into a category or group where you’re uncomfortable or not wanted, there are lots of choices. Finally, if you are truly intent on raising your child Jewish you should let him/her know that he/she is a Jew and THAT’S ALL ANYONE NEEDS TO KNOW.
Hope this helps.
-Len
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| Half-Jew |
Author: Sylvia (---.bluebird.ibm.com)
Date: 11-05-01 15:49
B.,
If you are attending a Reform temple, the problem is not that you are not Jewish. The problem is that you want to raise children in both religions. Reform will accept 'patrilineal' Jews as Jews, but only if they are raised as Jews exclusively. You are either Jewish or Christian, you can't be both. Judaism is not rejecting your children - rather you and your husband are rejecting Judaism. |
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Author: a friend of "A Southern Jew" (---.mpowercom.net)
Date: 11-05-01 16:15
Len,
I know what you mean when you point out how some Jews don't consider other Jews Jewish. It's terrible. I am a daugher of a Jewish mom and a Christian father, so I know that traditionally I'm Jewish, with no one able to take that away. Thank God! But there are some congregations in the US who say that all you need is one parent who's Jewish (either one) and that I have to participate in the Jewish community in order for me to be considered Jewish. Well, due to certain life events which I can't discuss, I don't participate in any Jewish community. So look who's writing me off as a Jew: some of the very Jewish leaders who have recently tried to broaden the definition of who is a Jew. Ain't that ironic. |
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| Who is a Jew? |
Author: Susan (---.as8.nwbl0.wi.voyager.net)
Date: 11-05-01 22:29
Dear B:
Len makes a very common mistake when he says one group of Jews may not consider another group "Jewish." If a person has a Jewish mother, then all groups of Jews will consider that person Jewish (with the possible exception of the group we read about in message number 12). Some Jews will argue that the religion some other Jews practice is not Judaism, but that doesn't make them any less Jewish.
I would only question what you mean when you say your children will be <I> "culturally Jewish while retaining some of the Christian tenets that are important to [you]. " </i> Which "Christian tenets" exactly? Sorry, but you conjure up visions in my mind of a child who eats bagels and chicken soup while believing JC will save him from Original Sin. Is this a Jewish child? If you are a Baptist and you teach your children "some of the tenets" of Christianity, then it sound like you plan to raise them believing in the Christian religion and not the Jewish one, and no amount of "cultural Jewishness" can alter that fact. If you teach your child to believe "Christian tenets" then I wonder why you would expect Jews to recognize this child as a Jew. |
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Author: Bryce (---.mpowercom.net)
Date: 11-06-01 09:39
Susan, your words are right on target. |
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| Ignore, this is just a test. |
Author: IFF editor (---.ne.mediaone.net)
Date: 12-18-01 10:46
Ignore, this is just a test. |
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Of the culture of Jews with family origins in Eastern Europe.
The ritual removal of the foreskin of the penis from boys on the eighth day after they are born. Following the circumcision, several blessings are recited and a celebration is held. More formally known as "brit milah."
Spiritual leader and teacher. Typically, but not always, leads a congregation.
Place of Jewish worship. Same as synagogue.
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the scroll that contains them.
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