How religious are you?

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Posted by Jax430

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Posted by marymoon

And this is another thought to throw into the mix of ideas.

People say the biggest and msot balck and white division between jeiwsh and not jewish is whether or not you believe in jesus.

Well, how about the belief (I'm not sure which groups believe this) that if your mother is jewish you're jewish. And this is a common belief. There is also the belief that once you are jewish you are ALWAYS jewish, even if you convert to another religion, for our sake, let';s say christianity. So in that case, you can be jewish (because you were born jewish and will always be jewish) and believe in christ (which you obviously do or you would not have converted).

And there are other things that can be called into this questions such as the jewish religion vs. the jewish ethnicity/heritage

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More interesting thoughts...the religious vs. heritage thing has always been a biggie for me, b/c I consider myself more culturally Jewish that religiously, at least in terms of observance. I am into Jewish culture, and Israel, and have always felt strongly about it b/c of the traditions and the singing and dancing. When I go to synagogue, it isn't always b/c I feel a huge connection to g-d, but b/c I like going and singing and being part of the congregation. I follow traditions b/c they are part of my history and make me feel spiritually connected, not necessarily b/c I was told to do them by g-d. Judaism is very different from other religions b/c of the cultural aspect. When someone asks me what my ethnic background is, I say 'I'm Jewish'.

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This is a really difficult think for non-jews to understand because while there is a lot of culture attached to other religions, when people ask my ethinicity, saying 'i'm catholic' would be absurd. It's a uniquelu jewish thing, the merger between religion and heritage. Is it a religion? is it a people? What is the difference.

This sort of relates to the previosu discussion in that there are people who don't believe in god at ALL who consider themselves Jewish. And it really amkes you wonder where to cross the line. Isn't believing in GOD more important to being jewish than not believing in jesus? It's an interesting question.

The line is so blurred between jewish religion and jewish culture that most people don't even realize there's a difference..and if there IS a difference..I don't think you can really fuly separate the two, which is really odd because there are so many jewish ahteists around...and then there are many people who truly believe in all of the jewish teachings and who truly believe in god, but whom many will say are not jewish because their mom was not jewish, or because they don't accept converts or..whatever.

I think it's really difficult to draw a real line between 'jewish' and 'not jewish' because 'jewish' means SO many things

The only way I can describe the ethnicity thing is that for many of us, we don't have a true ethnicity beyond that. My family, like many Ashkenazi Jews, is from all over Eastern Europe, but we have no association with Russian, Polish, or Rumanian culture. It's because the Jews were historically forced out of so many places and were never truly accepted into the culture of the societies in which they were living. This certainly doesn't apply to all Jews though.

When I was in Israel, we did an exercise where we had to break up into groups on whether we identified ourselves as 'American Jews' or 'Jewish Americans'. I was in the 'Jewish American' category b/c if someone asked me, 'what are you', my first response would be, 'I'm Jewish.' It's something that is so hard to explain..it's just a feeling....

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Posted by Jax430

The only way I can describe the ethnicity thing is that for many of us, we don't have a true ethnicity beyond that. My family, like many Ashkenazi Jews, is from all over Eastern Europe, but we have no association with Russian, Polish, or Rumanian culture. It's because the Jews were historically forced out of so many places and were never truly accepted into the culture of the societies in which they were living. This certainly doesn't apply to all Jews though.

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Ditto. Jax, I think we may be related.

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Posted by Goldi1021

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Posted by Jax430

The only way I can describe the ethnicity thing is that for many of us, we don't have a true ethnicity beyond that. My family, like many Ashkenazi Jews, is from all over Eastern Europe, but we have no association with Russian, Polish, or Rumanian culture. It's because the Jews were historically forced out of so many places and were never truly accepted into the culture of the societies in which they were living. This certainly doesn't apply to all Jews though.

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Ditto. Jax, I think we may be related.

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I think it also has to do with your level of observance or connection to judaism. DOug and his cousins come from the same background, but if you ask Doug his ethinicity he'll say he's easter europen, or he'll say he's russian and polish, but if you ask his (more religious) cousins, they'll say they're jewish, or they'll say they're ashkenazi

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Posted by Goldi1021

My ethnic background is Jewish. I have no connection to the countries my grandfathers came from. Neither do my parents. Both of my grandmothers were born here. I am a lot more observant and knowledgeable about Judaism than my parents are, and they were that much more observant than their parents. I am not going to get into semantics. Thisis just how it is in my family. Our religion is our culture.

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what semantics?

I know what it means.
I just didn't see what you meant. I thought you were apllying it to the latter part of the conversation about ethnicity. So I just didn't see what you were talking about. I thought you thought I was somehow arguing with you when I responded to you and jackie, but I didn't see it. I just wanted to be clear on what you meant.

My mom was born in germany, and a eastern european orthodox catholic.
My dad was born here , and RC. Religion played a major part in my upbringing until my mom passed away. We were one of those families that celebrated easter twice a year, etc... I used to take my son to church on the weekends. His mother takes him now , so I really don't go anymore except on the holidays.