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Old 10-25-2010, 11:23 AM
 
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What I'm doing is arguing that Jewish IS an ethnic group.
Terms like "ethnicity" are probably too imprecise here. There are multiple layers of identity. For example, Judaism itself is a religion with several different schools of thought and practice, most of which have some sort of conversion process. That is not an ethnic categorization in the traditional sense. You wouldn't say that a convert to a liberal form of Judaism (which may not even theologically require a belief in the existence of a deity) belongs to the same "ethnicity" as a member of a Hasidic sect.

Likewise, a convert to Judaism would have different hereditary characteristics compared to someone who descended from an Ashkenazi or a Yemeni (etc.) Jewish population. These populations also have differences from one another. And actually, a lot of the pioneering work done in the field now known as "genetic genealogy" was conducted in Israel, among various other Jewish populations worldwide, and among the Icelanders.

This aspect of identity is not religious, since it is possible for someone of Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Mizrahi descent to take up a different faith, or to become nonreligious.
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Old 01-17-2014, 07:29 PM
 
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This may ruffle a few feathers but then people that have Jewish ancestors but were forced to convert eithe by force or by choice have the ancient Israelite blood and ancestry. So this includes many people in Latin America, the Caribbean islands, Cape Verdeans, and also many Palestineans, and Arabs etc that have Semitic Jewish ancestry.

However many may not have the Jewish religion. So it depends, does one have to have the religion soley or only or also in conjunction with Jewish ethnic ancestral origins or vice versa?
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Old 01-17-2014, 07:40 PM
 
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Originally Posted by tablemtn View Post
Terms like "ethnicity" are probably too imprecise here. There are multiple layers of identity. For example, Judaism itself is a religion with several different schools of thought and practice, most of which have some sort of conversion process. That is not an ethnic categorization in the traditional sense. You wouldn't say that a convert to a liberal form of Judaism (which may not even theologically require a belief in the existence of a deity) belongs to the same "ethnicity" as a member of a Hasidic sect.

Likewise, a convert to Judaism would have different hereditary characteristics compared to someone who descended from an Ashkenazi or a Yemeni (etc.) Jewish population. These populations also have differences from one another. And actually, a lot of the pioneering work done in the field now known as "genetic genealogy" was conducted in Israel, among various other Jewish populations worldwide, and among the Icelanders.

This aspect of identity is not religious, since it is possible for someone of Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Mizrahi descent to take up a different faith, or to become nonreligious.
Ethnicity is more of a culture(al) based concept. Race is more of a phenotype based concept.

People of different races and various racial mixtures can makeup or comprise an ethnic group.

In addition different constructed identities or groups are NOT always mutually exclusive and can intersect.
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Old 01-17-2014, 07:41 PM
 
2,238 posts, read 3,313,521 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tablemtn View Post
Terms like "ethnicity" are probably too imprecise here. There are multiple layers of identity. For example, Judaism itself is a religion with several different schools of thought and practice, most of which have some sort of conversion process. That is not an ethnic categorization in the traditional sense. You wouldn't say that a convert to a liberal form of Judaism (which may not even theologically require a belief in the existence of a deity) belongs to the same "ethnicity" as a member of a Hasidic sect.

Likewise, a convert to Judaism would have different hereditary characteristics compared to someone who descended from an Ashkenazi or a Yemeni (etc.) Jewish population. These populations also have differences from one another. And actually, a lot of the pioneering work done in the field now known as "genetic genealogy" was conducted in Israel, among various other Jewish populations worldwide, and among the Icelanders.

This aspect of identity is not religious, since it is possible for someone of Ashkenazi or Sephardic or Mizrahi descent to take up a different faith, or to become nonreligious.
But you brought up very good points.
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