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I have similar questions. I know that I am of mostly German decent, but their are some names in my family tree that make me wonder.
I would not be at all unhappy to find out that I had some ancestors who were Jewish.
I did the full mtDNA test, going back 20,000 years or so. It seems to classify Jewish as a race.
I am a Jewish convert and this is how things were explained to me. Jews are a nation. "Citizenship" is very much like being an American. One can be born here or one can be "naturalized" by conversion. Both are Jewish.
Now imagine that it's 2000 years from now and Many more groups of people have come to and from the United States. Their have been war, invasion and mass immigrations. The DNA in this area pool would be more mixed A DNA test would prove that someone came from this area but it might not be able to pinpoint exactly who they came from anymore.
This descibes the Middle East. Many groups and ethnicites have come and gone from that part of the world in the past 2000 years or so. The DNA test may prove that you came from there, but they may not be able to determine which people specifically, Palestinian, Jew, Bedoin etc.
Also, there are 2 different questions here. How does the rest of the world classify Jews and How do Jews Classify themselves? And as there is an expression that goes something like "ask 2 Jews a question and get 4 answers" , the answer depends on who you ask
Frankly, the fact that Nazis classified Jews as a race or tha the US gov does this for discrimination purposes has nothing to do with how Jews view themselves.
From an anthropological perspective there is no Jewish race as there is no race at all scientifically speaking. Race is a social construct
I asked this question on two other forums.The moderator deleted it on the first board so I posted it on a New Hampshire thread about PC stupidity. I got some replies but I figured this forum might have a more complete answer.
My question: Is a Jew a Jew because of his religion or because of genetics/race? In other words are you still considered a Jew even if the Jewish religion has not been observed for several generations in your family?
GL2
Religion.
Most Jewish people still regard themselves as Jewish, even if they're not practicing Jews, so I'd say yes.
I go to 2 different churches. One is a non denominational, biblically accurate church. The other is a Messianic Jewish synagogue (I'm not Jewish at all).
You can get a good feel for what they think of themselves, or rather, how they view themselves by checking out a couple of resources.
Jews for Jesus (considered by Messianic Jews to be a sort of traitor to the Jewish traditions)
google "Messianic Jews" and you'll find that these are Jews who have come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah but still observe the feasts and food laws (which Jews for Jesus do not as they believe that which Jesus said "I have come to fulfill the law", which nullifies all "works" that were ordained before the age of grace).
Jewish ethnicities do exist such as Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Mizrahim.
Yes, and in the case of Ashkenazim, genetic connections can be ascertained by DNA testing.
It is harder to do so for Sephardim, though certain haplogroups combined with countries of origin (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Italy) can hint at Sephardic origins.
I'm not sure I understand how dna can tell what religion someone practiced. I see where some of those dna projects which collect people and tell you who you share dna markers with can say you share dna with people who are currently Jewish or whatever religion, but that's not quite the same.
My real life example - a friend was born in Peru as were their parents. Grandparents emmigrated there from what was then Palestine around WWI. They are and were as far as family memory goes, Christian. Their name is pure arabic. So - is dna going to tell them if they were Canaanites Baal worshippers who became Jews, then Christians? or perhaps originally Arabic & Muslim? It will probably tell them they are "Middle Eastern". It will probably tell them that people who today share their dna live in what is modern Isreal & Palestine territories & practice various religions. Some who share their dna today will be Jewish, Muslim, Christian.
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