Jewish Discussions: General: Who are the Jew?

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Topic: Who are the Jew?

Post By Jewish ID: 788
Mon, May 30 at 12:01:40 EDT
Who are the Jew?

Hello, I am from the small South Asian country of Sri Lanka. I am extreeemly interested in finding out about Jews and have been searching the Internet for some time now. The main reason why I am interested in the simple fact that it has been the Jews that have been responsible for most of the advanced fantastic technological civilization we see today. For example Albert Einstein was a Jew and so were most of the inventors who contributed most to the technological wonders we see today. I just want to know one thing: WHO ARE THE JEWS? I have read quite a lot about the subject. This is what people say. -Some say that being Jewish is being part of a тАЬNATIONтА? the definition of which nobody explains. -Some say that a Jew is someone whose Mother is a Jew or who has been converted to Judasim (i.e. Halakhically) constituted and recognized Beth Din ("Court [of Jewish-Torah Law]"). -Some say that the Jews are the decendants of тАЬISRAELITEтА? Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and parts of Levi from the Kingdom of Judah. This is a well believed and accepted fact. NONE OF THESE ANSWER MY QUESTION: Are the JEWS who is belived to be descended from from these races (Judah, Benjamin and Levi), Europeans, Arabs or a completely different тАЬRACEтА?. I personnaly do not belive in the concept of тАЬNATIONтА?, Jewish or otherwise. To me there is only тАЬRACEтА?. Humans identify themselves FIRST by RACE. Everything follows only after that. For example I have been told that Albert Einstein was a Europena Jew. So he was FIRST a European and only then a Jew. I have seen 100s of photograhos of Jews over the Internet and to my surprise found certain people who are neither European nor Arab. They cannot be put into any of the other known races as well. I have a theory: I think that the тАЬIsraelitesтА? were in fact a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RACE altogether, completely different from the Europeans and the Arabs. However after the Jews dispersed to different parts of the world, they married into other races (i.e. European and Arab). So it is extremly difficult to find members of the ORIGINAL ISRAELITE.s All I want to know is whether the Jews form a different RACE. I know that there are black, Chinese Jews as well. But these are COVERTED Jews. When I mean Jews I mean the descendants of the Israelites and not these coverts. I would be extreeemly grateful if anybody can englighten me as to the correctness of my theory. Thanks & Regards, Channa.

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Posted By Jewish ID:1164
Thu, Feb 18 at 12:58:02 EST
Re: Who are the Jew?
A Jewish is one who has a Jewish mother. Most of Jews today had converted to Judaism or one of their family members was converted. Those who hadn't converted to Judaism have formidable Jewish roots- which their initial place was the Holy Land. (It doesn't matter for me as a Jew if my father/grandfather had converted. And it doesn't matter for them if their father had converted if they were Christian.) Now days Jews are divided to two groups, Ashkenazim, with European roots, and Sephardim, North African or Spanish roots. Now, you'll ask, how do you define Jewish roots? Well, to answer this question seriously, you must take a whole course in Bible. Shortly, I can tell you that about 2,000 years ago there was a group named Jews, who had begun with Abraham Avinu, (Avinu in Hebrew means Our Father, literally.) who lived in the Holy Land which today officially called Israel. That group was special in its unusual monotheism belief, unlike other religious groups. That small group had grown and consist a large number of people. They had special features, as you probably know; mainly the constant reading in the Torah, eating Kosher, having beard, Jewish are not allowed to shave, and many other rules which I'm not aware of, I'm not religious. From that group evolved the Christianity and the Islam, on the same monotheism principle. Any how, the real Jews are the ones who's roots had started with Abraham and did not had any relation with foreign religion people. You can't really define a Jew but to indicate his Jewish race. It's like any other race or nationality. When you say someone is Chinese, you can see some features, physical and personal, codes or behavior, habits, language, but you can't go extremely far from that. Plus, today Jews don't look so similar to each other as before over their long history and their residence in different places. That's why it's meaningless to describe a Jew due his physical features. Though that, if a Jew has blue eyes, the chances of him being a completely original Jew are very low. He can be a Jew, maybe his mother, grandmother and so were Jewish, but the "real" Jew of back then, 2,000 years before, had had only brown eyes and hair, so probably a European guy had involved in the Jewish family. Hope I helped you, dear Channa, have a good day. Ayelet Landesman

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