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Nevertheless, even though it wasn't easy for my in law's generation, it was still much better here in the U.S. than where his family came from. European antisemitism was often brutal even before Hitler came along.
A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.
It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with a person's religion, race, or beliefs.
It depends on what/whose definition you use.
I am a Jew first and foremost because I believe in the tenets of Judaism, i.e. that there is one God. I was confirmed as a Jew by my rabbi when I was a teenager.
If I had later converted to Catholicism or Buddhism or another religion, I would no longer be a Jew, regardless of my mother's Judaism.
If my mother had not been Jewish, but had married my father (a Jew) and they had raised me as a Jew, sent me to Jewish religious classes; I would be a Jew, at least by the definition of the Reform Jewish faith.
There are Black Jews and African Jews; and Jews in many countries of the world.
Not Jewish but I do notice the shockingly passive attitudes towards Anti Semitism. I rarely ever hear anyone defending Jewish people. Unfortunately a lot of people turn the other way when it comes to hate crimes against the Jewish.
I am a Jew first and foremost because I believe in the tenets of Judaism, i.e. that there is one God. I was confirmed as a Jew by my rabbi when I was a teenager.
If I had later converted to Catholicism or Buddhism or another religion, I would no longer be a Jew, regardless of my mother's Judaism.
If my mother had not been Jewish, but had married my father (a Jew) and they had raised me as a Jew, sent me to Jewish religious classes; I would be a Jew, at least by the definition of the Reform Jewish faith.
There are Black Jews and African Jews; and Jews in many countries of the world.
Absolutely! There are variables on definition depending on which branch of Judaism.
My son has a Jewish father and a Jewish last name. He wasn't raised in the faith, and doesn't consider himself to be a Jew, nor would a Rabbi consider him to be. Nevertheless, there's a connection and an awareness there because of family ties and history that cannot be denied.
Being the (former) wife of a Jewish man, who had little interest in his own religion, I was fascinated with it, but never converted. I do love so many of the philosophies though and one of my favorite books is "Jewish Wisdom" by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Highly recommend it to anyone!
Another reason was fundamental Christianity. Some people would read the new testament, and say Jews killed Jesus! OMG and then kill a bunch of Jews for that reason. But basically in human history people have enjoyed killing one another. Since the Jews live in communities kind of separate from the Christians, IMO it just made them easy targets.
I am culturally Catholic. For thousands of years people have had unpopular ideas and have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. One of those people was Christ. Christ was the Martin Luther of his day.
As far as the Christian fundamentalists are concerned, I have no respect for those who think that you get the Earth's age by stacking up the ages of the people in the Bible.
Plus the couple of college level books on political science do disagree with you. I also think that many on both sides of the political spectrum use or misuse the horrors of what Hitler and the Nazis did to demonize the opposite side. He certainly hated the communists and the unions and was courted by US large business.
Soviet Union is not leftist. At times politically Soviet Communism can be right wing. Soviets also pracstised racism, also demonized American and Western liberalism. I don't see either Hitler Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on left or right, probably some where in between like everyone else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Orlandochuck1
Jews are overwhelmingly victims of religious hate crime according to the FBI
It looks like anti semitism is a much bigger problem than isamophobia.
Religious bias
Of the 1,223 victims of anti-religious hate crimes:
60.3 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.
13.7 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias.
6.1 percent were victims of anti-Catholic bias.
4.3 percent were victims of bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).
3.8 percent were victims of anti-Protestant bias.
0.6 percent were victims of anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
11.2 percent were victims of bias against other religions (anti-other religion). (Based on Table 1.)
Historically no one has ever liked the Jews. We can go back for thousands of years and see why Jews have been persecuted. Every nation and civilatation has confronted Jewish issue. Antiquity, Jews were the slaves of Egyptians according to the old testament. Babelynians controlled Judea, Jews asked for Persian help, plenty of Jews also lived in Iran at the time. Jews did not like Persian rule and hoped for change with Greek rule under Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander his empire breaks up into competing Greek Kingdoms. Jews feared well in Greco Egypt, Greco Syria, Greeks wanted Jews to worship Greek gods. Jews reblled against the Greeks becoming indepdent, also Rome interference with Greek affiars also allowed Rome into Jewish affairs. Rome also persecute Jews, Rome incoprates Judea into the empire and causes rebellions. 72 Ad the rebellion is crushed and Jewish nation is gone for good. Jews face further punishment during Christian Roman empire. Jews face discrimination in the Eastern Roman Empire. Jews faired well in the Muslim Empire, just like they do today in the USA of today. Middle Ages Jews were persecuted by Crusaders and during the Black Death Jews face further punishment by the hands of Catholics. The growth of Spain saw Jews being persecuted. By 1492 Jews were force to leave Spain or die by the sword. Most Jews ended up in the Ottoman Empire and lived fairly free of harm. Other Catholic countries had similar policies like Spain. Modern Period Russia was very anti-Semitic, Soviet Union was anti Zionist and took a stance against anything culturally Jewish and Israel Also Stalin was a staunch Anti Jew and he too probably killed off plenty of Jews. Nazi Germany was anti semitic and saw the killing of millions of Jews. Hitler admired Stalin hatred of Jews. Arab Nationlists also did not like Jews and saw plenty of Jews flee for Israel. Cuba saw its Jews pack up and leave after Castro take over of the Island and embracing of Communism. From what I see is that the greatest threats to Jews are Communism, Socialism, nationalism of politics, while faith paganism, Christianity and to a certain degree islaminism also persecuted Jews
Something I've never understood about American Jews is why they vote the way they do. They consistently vote for people that are the ones pushing the most hate and discrimination against them and Israel and the ones most against their values and finances. But if they insist, be my guess.
The anti-Semitic comments in this thread remind me of a very old Jewish joke in an article written by Chris Hitchens years ago:
Two elderly Jews [are] sitting in a Berlin park, with one of them reading a Yiddish paper and the other one scanning the pages of Der Stürmer. The latter Jew is laughing. This proves too much for the former Jew, who says: “It’s not enough you read that Nazi rag, but you find it funny?”
“Look,” replies the other. “If I read your paper, what do I see? Jews deported, Jews assaulted, Jews insulted, Jewish property confiscated. But I read Der Stürmer, and there’s finally some good news. It seems that we Jews own and control the whole world!”
Gender bias
Of the 30 victims of hate crime motivated by an offender’s bias toward gender:
25 were categorized as anti-female.
5 were anti-male. (See Table 1.)
Gender-identity bias
Of the 33 victims of gender-identity bias:
25 were victims of anti-transgender bias.
8 were victims of anti-gender non-conforming bias. (See Table 1.)
These numbers are so pathetically low as to tell me that there are huge reporting biases...I don't know why we have to say that something is or is not important based on how many people are suffering. ALL of these hate crimes are wrong...and they are ALL being under-reported.
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Christ was the Martin Luther of his day.
