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July 12, 2007 | 11:07 pm

Who is a half-Jew?

There is a really interesting story in today’s Jewish Journal about the growing number of ”half-Jews” fighting for acceptance. Jewish denominations differ on conversion requirements and whether the Jewish lineage comes from the mother or father, but each agrees that there is no such thing as a half-Jew—either you are or you aren’t.

You can’t have two identities, they say. But what about Ms. Cohen and the many like her?

Georgiana Cohen, a 27-year-old Web content specialist in Somerville, Mass., was raised by a non-Jewish mother but spent five years at the Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, Fla. That experience, she says, “legitimized a last name I carried around like a fake ID.”

The split between life at home and at school was stark, she recalls.

“My childhood was all Christmas trees and Easter candy,” Cohen says. “Meanwhile, back in Boca, I sang folk songs like ‘Jerusalem of Gold,’ led weekly minyan services with my best friend and captured Hebrew spelling bee trophies.”

She refers to herself now, somewhat flippantly, as “half-Jewish and half ‘fill-in-the-blank.’ ”

The broader question—Who is a Jew?—is one of the most vexing for world Jewry and me personally. Both my grandmothers were Jewish and so was one grandfather; I look like a Jew, walk like a Jew and quack like a Jew—must be a duck—but I believe in Christianity, which is anathema to Judaism. So am I a Jew?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg in Who is a Jew? | 6 Comments — Leave your comment

Tags: judaism

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Folks here in Israel would agree that you are no longer Jewish because you are a Christian convert ie you have strayed from the tribal belief system by embracing this messiah, JC.  Perhaps ethnically, you can claim semitic bloodlines.  Jew: a race question or a belief system?

Comment by Izzy Bee on 7/13/07 at 1:57 am

Ambiguity Bites! It’s simple, to be in group X, you have attribute(s) Y. There is no half kosher, regardless of how you describe kosher. It is either kosher or not. Traditionally, If your mother is Jewish, so are you regardless of how you are raised or believe. If you find yourself in a church, on Yom Kippur, eating a Big Mac and your Mom is Jewish, you’re still Jewish.

Comment by Avigdor on 7/13/07 at 6:15 am

I wonder in a country like Russia, where passports list “Jew” for ethnicity, how would the government identify me?

Comment by Brad A. Greenberg on 7/13/07 at 6:40 am

In Russia you would have had the choice if only one parent was Jewish. They would not have cared if it was the mother or father. My father in-Law is considered Jewish according to Russia with just a Jewish father.

I actually just wrote about this topic, spurred on by the recent JPPPI convention.

Some will make the distinction between Halachicly Jewish (Jewish by current normative Jewish law) and plain Jane Jewish. Being one does not necessarily include you in the other group. I study Messianic Jews and them being Halachicly Jewish does not matter in the eyes of many liberal Jews.

If we want, we can go back to the Nazi identifier of Judaism - you’re a Jew if you have at least one Jewish grandparent.

Comment by Gil on 7/13/07 at 12:27 pm

It’s interesting how the Orthodox are more inclusive of a person like me, who’s opted out religiously, than the Reform. But I think Gil closed with the important point—who the Nazis thought was Jewish. Much less so for my generation, but clearly anti-Semitism has helped determine who is Jewish and unified those who are.

Comment by Brad A. Greenberg on 7/13/07 at 2:30 pm

Brad,
You are not a Jew.  You are a Christian.  Period.

Hey, my mother is a vegetarian, my grandmothers are vegetarians, I dress like a vegetarian and love to eat vegetarian food , but I eat steak and chicken and fish and pork.

Am I a vegetarian?

You are of Jewish origin (or mostly Jewish origin), but buddy--you are no longer a Jew if you believe in Christianity.....

Do you really, really believe that BS about Jesus??? It makes NO sense and is completely contradictory not only to Judaism but to the original religion. If you do believe that Jesus was the “son” of G-d, you aren’t a Jew....

Why are you so involved in Jewish stuff and the Jewish press if you are a Christian?

I am not trying to diss you, but you can’t be a Jew and a Christian…

Just like you can’t be a vegetarian and eat meat…

Comment by Anonymous on 8/04/07 at 3:28 pm

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