In 1954 the Chinese government ruled than no ethnic Chinese person could be Jewish. At the time only 50 Jews remained of the few thousand that had survived for the previous two millennia, so China simply saw it as inconvenient to allow so few people the privilege of having a distinct nationality. China's problem is understandable. There is no widely accepted definition of Jewishness despite the best and worst efforts by the Southern Baptists, the Nazis, the American government, the Catholic Church, the Chinese government, and the state of Israel.
The simplest definition I can imagine is: "a Jew and is someone who chooses to be a member of the Jewish people and who has fulfill the criteria of one or more bodies of claiming the authority to confer membership in the Jewish people."
This definition intentionally excludes those whose Judaism is defined by others. Many people who died as Jews in Hitler's campus would not qualify under this definition. Madeline Albright, although a Jew by Jewish law is not a Jew simply because she chooses, instead, her white-christian heritage. Similarly, Lani Guanier, the Harvard civil-rights law professor, chooses to celebrate her father;s skin color rather than her mothers Judaism. In this sense American Jews are part of an increasing community identifying themselves as multiethnic or claiming to be able to pick and choose from assorted ancestral connections. Such people, exemplified by Tiger Woods with his African-American and Thai background, may choose to emphasize one culture over another often based on their physical appearance. At the other extreme, Native American tribes in Connecticut have obvious African American physical features, but any attraction to the heritage of Dr. King and Magic Johnson was overbalanced by the financial benefits coming from their Foxwood Tribal Casino.
At this point it is obvious that we are not discussing Judaism as a religion. Presumably the census taker looks badly upon those Americans who might choose to select "African-American" despite having blond hair and pinkish flesh. There is no official body that confers blackness. Judaism is like a religion in allowing, even celebrating the convert. Akiva, the great rabbi of the bar Kochba revolt was a convert as were David's mother and Moses' wife. Jewish conversion, however, is different from conversion to a religious faith. The convert to Judaism accepts the responsibility for the genetic inheritance of Judaism. As strange as this idea may be to a Christian, the children of Jewish converts need no baptism or special ceremony to be Jewish. If your mom is a yid you is too. Thus, the great grand daughter of a convert, assuming consistency of the maternal line a Jewish, would be as eligible to enter Israel as a Jew as the child of the head Lubavitcher Rabbi who claims descent from David himself.
On most religious matters, Judaism does not have an opinion. Jesus was not the son of God. You want heaven? OK, You like angels and the devil? OK, too. Messiahs, sure .. and many different kinds of messiahs too. Lots of choices, but one matter is clear ... there is one and exactly one God. The God tolerates no other gods nor does he make incarnate, personal manifestations. It is not conceivable that this God would personify himself to impregnate a virgin or give birth to a demigod. Thus Jesus worship is inamicable to conversion to Judaism. In contrast, while Judaism rejects the triune godhead, the Jews for Jesus Christian cult includes members who claimed to be former Jews. Not surprisingly, this discovery exempts such people from acceptance by the Jewish community. Still, under Jewish law a Jesus believer or a convert to Islam remains a Jew by birth.
In contrast to acceptance of the Christian deity, rejection of all gods is generally more acceptable to the modern Jewish community. I think the ability to tolerate atheists is a result of monotheism itself. Judaism is surprisingly vague on the nature of God. A simple way for Judaism to escape the blame directed at God as the permissive force behind the Holocaust is to put God's actions on a plane that is inexplicable to man. Jews, for example, are generally proud of Einstein as a Jew and definitely do not consider the hirsute mathematician to be an atheist. Fortunately most of us will never understand Einstein's math so it is OK for his deity to be inexplicable too. It would be difficult to assign blame or seek relief from Einstein's sense of wonder in the orderliness of the universe.
All this leads up to a question:
Why don;t more people convert to Judaism?. After all isn't monotheism really common in today's world? Many Christian sects have assigned the son of God to the lesser role of wise man in a troubled time. Their Christianity seems like Judaism .. stripped only of the membership in the Jewish people. I guess for most folks there is not much to gain by such a membership.
One wonders whether Palestinians, in particular, might not undertake mass conversion?
11 comments:
you bring some interesting points - but I just wanted to clarify a few points -
"Jewish conversion, however, is different from conversion to a religious faith"
is this to imply that Judaism is not a religious faith? while it is true that the convert accepts the lineage of the Patriarchs, the convert also accepts the mitzvot and the faith of those Patriarchs.
"Akiva, the great rabbi of the bar Kochba revolt was a convert as were David's mother and Moses' wife." Close, but not quite. Akiva's parents were the converts, and it was David's grand-mother, Ruth.
"On most religious matters, Judaism does not have an opinion. "
you've heard the expression, "two Jews, three opinions?" There is no shortage of opinions of religious matters in Judaism! Far from it - go check out the Talmud - there are centuries of opinions just waiting to be studied.
take care
1. Conversion:
You oversimplify. I have noit stated that Judaims does not have a religion ... I have said it not a religion. Moreover, while converts may agree that there is a deity, unlike most religons there in rela defnition of that belief. Rabbis will accept most naything from Einstein's ultimate consistency to the Great Pumpkin,
2. My error on Ruth. On Akiba we may have read different sources. Hille'ls great grandparents were converts.
3. I said Judaism, not Jews. Judaism has no official stand on the exostance of Heaven ,,, thougbh mnay beleive in H&H.
The Great Pumpkin? I don't know what kind of rabbis you have up there in Seattle.... :-)
I have to apologize for my post yesterday - I'm really not an antagonistic person - I'm not sure what got into me there. Really, I wanted to comment on your question of why more people don't convert to Judaism, but I got distracted. Now, I'm no expert here, but from my (limited) experience with people who were looking to convert and changed their mind, the primary reasons seemed to be 1) an attachment to the traditions of their family 2) not wanting to change their cultural identity or 3) they break up with the Jewish significant other. One could say that in the past, a reason would have been the rampant anti-semitism found in most host countries, though this didn't stop people from converting.
In any case, as Judaism is not a religion that prosletizes; I guess you could say it's going for quality, not quantity. :-) And besides, there are seven Noahide laws for non-Jews to follow, where they can be happily monotheistic, have a place in the world-to-come, and still eat bacon.
On a different note, I see you like Amadeus. Nu, what about Immortal Beloved?
how did you decide that I like Amadeus?
Actually, you seem to have misunderstood my post. While I do think Judaism should encourage conversion, I am more concerned with the problem of people leaving Judaism.I think, and perhaps you do as well, that the major reason for being Jewish rather than Quaker or otherwise following the Noahide laws, is allegiance to the Jewish cultural heritage. Rather than being worried that few people would want to adopt a new cultural heritage, I worry thatthe American version of that heritage is being watered down.
It seems like rather than a misunderstanding, it's more of a difference of opinion. I don't think we should encourage people to convert, because what's the point? There are plenty of good things that Gentiles can do for the world without taking on the obligation of all the mitzvot. However, I agree with you whole-heartedly concerning the trouble with the watered-down version of Yiddishkeit in this country. For most American Jews, I think that their Jewishness is only in relation to culture, and not at all to religion, and, as a result, the bulk of American Jewry is steadily melting into the pot. So, what do you think should be done? Try to recruit more people to become Jews, or try to wake up the Jews of America to the incredible value of their heritage?
And, as for Amadeus, you have it listed as one of your "favorite movies" in your Profile. I'm a musician (classically trained), so it piqued my interest, that's all. :-)
Ahhh! You meant the movie. Yes! I love getting wrapped in music and that moviewas like flying in a cloud of sound.
Back to our main topic, I suspect we do not agree. as a religion, Judaism offers much too little to keep the involvement of American children. Look at it this way, monotheism is generally available from many providers. America's sense all of fairness, moreover, all deeds in the Jewish sense of importance in being chosen.
Besides what is there the Jews believe in, as religion, that is terribly important? About the only feature of Judaism that distinguished it from other religions is strict monotheism. While the Catholics are polytheists (sorry Mr. Aquinas), many Christian sacks have humanized Jesus to the point where he would really be pretty much acceptable as a Jewish or Muslim prophet.
So, my argument is that Judaism's future in the United States lies in the same direction as Israeli Judaism. Israeli Jews do not rely on "religion" for their you to shut it. Israeli Jews are proud of being Israelis! Israeli Jews have a religion but are not Jewish because of the religion.
if we are to survive on that seems to me, we need Bill on Jewish ethnicity. Jewish children need to learn a lot more about Jewish history than is now taught. I doubt very much that knowledge of the exploits of Abraham and David motivate many young Jewish women to marry young Jewish men. instead, I believe we need to teach our children to be proud all the European-Jewish tradition all of liberalism, scholarship, and ethics.
Try this quiz the next time you're with a young Jew. Ask them which of the falling can they identify:
Schwermer
Gompers
Alinski
Feynman
Brandeis
Gordimer
or, ask the young person to name the highest ranking Jewish General from World War II.
For that matter, you are a musician. Klezmer aside, you suppose this young person could identify a Jewish composer or even a Jewish jazz musician?
without ethnic pride, I find it hard to imagine why young people would want to be Jewish.
There is one more principal behind my concept of what it takes for Judaism survive. We both read some form of news from Israel. My wife and I subscribe to the Jerusalem Post. It strikes me that Jewish news, or rather news about Israel, has a very unusual flavor. Unusual, that is, as compared with most other national news. The Israelis, despite their difficult circumstances, are continuously asking themselves about the morality of their national policy. There is no equivalent moral angst in the United States about the behavior of American Jewry.
Let me provide you with evidence for the last statement. As a Jew, hopefully unethical Jew, I am ashamed of our involvement in the Bush administration. The Jewish scandal has escaped the public's notice only, I suspect, because the news media are afraid of being called anti-Semitic. The problem goes well beyond the horrible behavior of an Orthodox Jewish lobbyist from Seattle. We should be embarrassed about Jack Abramoff. we should be scared of the actions of the so-called "neocons." Wolfowitz, Krystall, in their passion for Israe had done the US great harm. surely these guys must have realized how stupid George Bush is? Their chutzpah hasn't aged the entire world. We can only hope that "Scooter" will move on quietly without awakening liberal anti-Semitism.
you bring some very interesting points - I would love to respond, but Shabbos starts in an hour and a half - take care, I'll write soon, B''H
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am in the process of fleeing Judaism AS A WHOLE....for I am truly disgusted with what I have borne witness to, vis-a-vis neocon Orthodox "Jews" and the cozy little ideology that has been shattered (with absolutely no acknowledgement)...
Thank you for writing such words. When I read them, I actually feel sane once again!
I hope you will not leave Judaism. the flip side of the concerns you and I share is the incredible contribution Jews have made to western civilization. there is something shared, common, and Jewish about Feynman, Gompers, Alinski,Brandeis, and so. Mankind will be much poorer that Jewish trait is lost.
You suggest Palestinians convert en mass to Judaism. I believe it would be more appropriate for Jews to embrace Islam en mass. Are you familiar with Leopold Weiss (who became Muhammad Asad)? His book 'The Road to Mecca' is a must read!
Best Wishes,
Abdul Ghafoor
In principle, a good happen, support the views of the author
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