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I have a question: Can one be Jewish and adhere to a religion other than Judaism?
by halacha, yes. When Bnai Israel followed the golden calf, they were sinners, worthy of death - but Taanach does not say they ceased to be Bnai Israel. If thats the case for the worst idolatry, why would it be different for christianity or islam?
By the wisdom of the folk, of Am Israel itself, however, one CAN cease to be Jewish. A Jew who claims atheism is still a Jew. But a Jew who converts to Christianity or Islam is not. Why would this be? because, for millenia, in christian and muslim societies, atheism was not recognized legally. A jew who denied G-d was still restricted to the Jewish ghetto - his FATE was still with Am Israel. A Jew who converted joined the ruling people, left the ghetto (often was forbidden by law to return to it, even to visit close relatives) and so had seperated himself from the fate of Am Israel.
This is why I think the folk wisdom also distinguishes between, say, a secularist Yiddishist Atheist (like the Bundists) , and a russian speaking communist like Trotsky. The bundists affirm the common fate with the rest of the people. The bolshevik denies his peoplehood, and sets himself against Jewish peoplehood. Ergo we say Trotsky was "born Jewish" but say Abraham Cahan, or even Sigmund Freud (who joined Bnai Brith) were "jewish atheists"
I'm a Christian and I'm always amazed of how often I agree with Jews.
I think is ridiculous to say that Jewish is a religion (what you believe) and a race (genes)
it doesn't make sense at all.
Otherwise, people could claim to be Jewish-Catholic, Jewish-Buddhist, etc.
Otherwise, people could claim to be Jewish-Catholic, Jewish-Buddhist, etc.
Or much worse... Jewish-Chrstian.
Why do I say much worse? Because a group of Chrstians have organized to create this label in order to trick Jews into giving up their Olam Haba (world to come) by getting these poor uneducated Jews to believe that one can be a Jewish-Chrstian. Preposterous!
Why do I say much worse? Because a group of Chrstians have organized to create this label in order to trick Jews into giving up their Olam Haba (world to come) by getting these poor uneducated Jews to believe that one can be a Jewish-Chrstian. Preposterous!
I completely agree with you,
as a Christian, I'm also offended by the people that talk about "Judeo-Christianity"
You can't be both of them.
I believe is BS made up for political reasons (long story) and has nothing to do with religion.
Otherwise, people could claim to be Jewish-Catholic, Jewish-Buddhist, etc.
there ARE people who call themselves "jewbu's" There are halachic issues with buddism, but rather different from those involved with christianity - complicated by the fact that there really isnt a "standard" buddism - you can be a buddist polytheist, or, effectively, a buddist atheist.
the story of a group of Jews, including the kinda sorta Orthodox Yitz and Blu Greenberg, and the ex-chabad (and now Jewish Renewal) Schachter shalomi, who go to India to visit the Dalai Lama (who was interested in learning how to survive in exile)
The term race has never had a discrete definition. For most of history, up until well into the 20th century, the meaning of the word 'race' most often referred to what we call ethnicity or even nationality.
From an anthropological standpoint, it would be more accurate to describe the population of the religion of Jews as a tribe, not a race. A tribe is predicated on the notion of kinship, that is blood relations and familial ties who share a common belief and/or worldview that is passed down generation to generation and with a system of inheritance. So obviously, genes and blood relations play a very important role in understanding what Judaism is (not that I claim to be anything more than an interested outside observer).
However, acceptance into a tribal body, while guaranteed by birthright does not mean it is exclusive to a genotype. Tribes, in the anthropological sense, generally accept intermarriage and new members assuming the outsider is willing to assimilate, and according to whatever rules the tribe operates by.
Whatever one may think about Judaism being strictly a religion and having no racial component, recent genetic testing has indicated that the haplotypes present in Middle Eastern Jewish populations who have no known ancestry outside the region are present in the majority of members of even the most genetically mixed Germanic and Slavic Jews. Jews who settled in Medieval Europe certainly brought Germans and Poles into the tribe and it shows phenotypically, but they still have strong genetic ties to their Hebrew ancestors. This continues today obviously.
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