What exactly makes someone a Jew?

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Kimimela-PRO ISRAEL AND PROUD

your question is very complex but ill try to simplify it.

The answer to what makes some one a jew is multi faceted.

To be a jew is a cultural / ethnic thing as much as it is a religious one.

you can be a jew by heritage or birth. your grandmother can be jewish but your mother or you may not have been raised to be a practising jew. That makes you a jew according to jewish law but not neccisarily by religion.

you can be a jew by culture. Ie youve been born in israel where the jewish religion is part of every day life, you may keep kosher becuase the shops mostly sell only kosher food but you may not believe in the jewish religion.

or you can be a jew by conversion, with no jewish heritage but with a desire to practise the jewish faith and live as a jew. These people are also considered as jewish as someone born into it by jewish law.

As for the jewish names and jewish ''look''.

The kind of jewish names im guessing you are refering to - ie - Goldman, Goldberg, Guttenberg, Green etc are mainly from jews with eastern european heritage and reflect the trades, area or occupations jews were allowed to hold or do throughout european history. More english sounding ones are usuall adaptations, or translations of more ''foreign '' sounding european versions.

As for the jewish '' look''. There is one kind of. Jews were and mainly still are a middle eastern semitic people. Although time in europe and intermarriage has brought variety, many jews still have middle eastern traits. Dark hair, skin, eyes, and bone structure. Its hard to explain without sounding like a nazi but it is true.

if you compare jews with middle eastern peoples, then say, germanic/ nordic peoples you will see that jews generally have more in commen looks wise with people from the middle east than with your average swede or something.

this is a generalization though and not all jews look like theyve just stepped out of a tent in the desert.

hope that explains it a little

koukou

Traditionally if a person has a Jewish mother they are considered to be Jewish - regardless of their religious observance. In more liberal interpretations, people who have a Jewish father are also considered to be Jewish (there is disagreement on this issue).

Judaism is a faith, it is not an ethnicity. In fact, Judaism prides itself on it's inclusivity - anyone may become Jewish by conversion (although there are differing views on what the conversion should entail). Check out the 'My Jewish Learning' website for a comprehensive discussion on Judaism.

How could Nazi's figure out who was Jewish? Jewish practices & traditions set them apart from other people in the occupied countries. Religious affiliations were recorded by various officials & the Nazi's gained access to these records. In some cases local residents told the Nazi's who was Jewish. The Nazi's also made their own 'vigorous' investigations.

justwondering

Jews are not a race.

Understand that there is actually no single agreed upon definition of who a jew is.

In rabbinical judaism, there is something called halacha. This is "jewish law". According to halacha, a person is a jew if they had a female ancestor from their matrilineal line present at Mount Sinai when Moses received the 10 commandment, (thus their mother was a jew, and her mother, and her mother, and so on) or if one of those matrilineal ancestors converted before the birth of the person, or if the person themselves converted. Of course most people can't trace their family history back all too far, let alone down the matrilineal side, so most of these jews make the assumption that since their family has been jewish as far as anyone can remember, they are jews.

Halacha is followed by Sephardic and Ashkenazi orthodox branches of judaism. For example, hasidic, orthodox and modern orthodox jews all follow the halachic definition of who is a jew.

I believe conservative jews follow a similar definition.

Reform jews (who are usually Ashkenazi or Sephardic or of both lineages) believe you are a jew if either of your parents were jewish, though if it was your father, you must have been raised in a jewish household.

Conservative jews do no recognize reform conversions and orthodox jews do not recognize reform or conservative conversions but both recognize orthodox conversions.

Further more, according to halacha, a person is a jew whether or not they know it, whether or not they convert to another religion, and whether or not they practice any religion at all.

Smaller groups of jews, such as Karaite jews, Ethiopian jews, and the likes usually follow patrilineal descent.

So what of the nazis?

Well the practice of judaism generally kept "the jews" isolated to a degree from the surrounding populations. As they migrated, jews did not believe in intermarriage and the surrounding, usually christian populations, often enforced various degrees of segretation of the jews, but of course, jewish women, were on occasion subject to rape, and not everyone was so religious that they had a problem with intermarriage. As a result of this partial isolation, various ethnic groups of jews arose, with prevalences of certain physical features and a culture of their own.

These groups include the Ashkenazi jews, who are primarily of eastern and western European stock, Sephardic jews, who inhabited areas such as Spain and Portugual and the surrounding regions (more recently in history), Mizrahi jews who are distributed in parts of the middle east, Eithiopian jews, Mountain jews (the Jahuro), and so on.

When most people think of "jews" they think of Ashkenazi jews. This is the group that got the brunt of the holocaust and was most depicted in Nazi propaganda. But the Nazis had a problem. Only certain individual jews had these "jewish" characteristics. Many jews looked no different than the non-jewish Europeans. So, before the holocaust actually started, some people, who were "German" looking enough, could apply to be officially "German".

When the holocaust started, if no more than two of four of your grandparents were jewish, and you didn't look too "jewish" yourself, you'd usually be spared the concentration camp. If such a person was sent to a concentration camp, they were usually assigned "desk jobs" and treated better than others in the camp.

Some of these "half jews" even served in the German military...some even in the SS.

Since intermarriage is so prevalent in the U.S. there are many people who identify as jews due to their heritage and whatever culture which may have accompanied it, who do not practice judaism and are not considered jewish by jewish law.

So what actually makes a jew really depends on who you ask.

The angels have the Arc Light.

During the 19th century, it became fashionable to replace 'Jew-hatred' (based on religion) with 'anti-Semitism' (yes, the term was coined by an anti-Semitic who was proud of it and wanted to make it more palatable than 'Jew-hatred'). The idea was that Jews were somehow genetically inferior and that discriminating against them was justified.

When people say someone 'looks Jewish', they're almost always referring to particular traits (dark curly hair, pale skin, slight of build) associated with Jewish communities in parts of eastern Europe. The father in Poland would have 'looked Jewish' in comparison to his neighbours, but would have looked quite different from Mid Eastern Jews, etc. (In terms of the Holocaust, it meant that he wouldn't have been able to 'pass' as a Polish Christian, and his community would have had a different system of surnames.)

Both of these ideas, that Jewish means race and that someone can 'look Jewish', are essentially European ways of looking at people who had lived amongst them for centuries but whom they still considered, and forced to be, outsiders.

It has no basis in Judaism. We've always been clear that we are a religious group which exists across the world's cultures.

The First Dragon

The child of a Jewish mother is a Jew.
A non-Jew can become a Jew by conversion.
So, there is a religious aspect and a hereditary aspect.
However, Judaism is not a race; there are Jews of all races.
The Nazis, however did regard Jewishness as a race, and often went simply by looks or the sound of a name. Not very intelligent. But that's no surprise, is it?

fiero86

Judaism is a religion. Traditionally if the persons mother was Jewish then that person is Jewish. There are stereotypes that people associate with being Jewish. Some are physical like having a big nose. There are names that are traditionally Jewish names, Goldstein is the first that comes to mind. So, during the Holocaust if the soldiers that were rounding up the jews thought the person looked jewish they would take them. For the most part the Nazis didn't care if the person was Jewish or not, if they looked different then they would be taken. They also found out by having someones neighbor claim someone else was jewish. They would do this so they wouldn't be taken and/or killed.

tlkr_11

1) According to Orthodox Judaism, any person who was born to a Jewish mother, or who has converted to Judaism, is considered halachically (according to Jewish law) Jewish.

2) Some people consider Judaism to be a religion only, while others consider it to be a race and a religion. I am the latter, but it is a matter of opinion.

3) The Nazis classified anyone who had one Jewish grandparent as Jewish, however, one Jewish grandparent does not make one Jewish according to Jewish law.

Pete O

I could answer your question but it would take about 5 pages to explain.

Go to Google and search "jewish relegion" and you will find thousands of pages covering the history of the Jewish Relegion.

dandyl

According to Jewish law, a child born to a Jewish mother or an adult who has converted to Judaism is considered a Jew; one does not have to reaffirm their Jewishness or practice any of the laws of the Torah to be Jewish. According to Reform Judaism, a person is a Jew if they were born to either a Jewish mother or a Jewish father. Also, Reform Judaism stresses the importance of being raised Jewish; if a child is born to Jewish parents and was not raised Jewish then the child is not considered Jewish. According to the Orthodox movement, the father’s religion and whether the person practices is immaterial. No affirmation or upbringing is needed, as long as the mother was Jewish.

Besides for differing opinions on patrilineal descent, the various streams also have different conversion practices. Conversion done under the auspices of an Orthodox rabbi, entails Jewish study, brit milah (for men), mikvah (for both men and women) and a stated commitment to follow the laws of the Torah. Conservative conversions use the same requirements as the Orthodox do; however, conversions by the Reform movement and other streams do not have the same requirements. Since the conversion practices are not uniform, many Orthodox Jews do not recognize Reform or Conservative conversions as valid and, hence, do not consider the converts Jews. Once a person has converted to Judaism, he is not referred to by any special term; he is as much a Jew as anyone born Jewish.
Judaism is considered to be both a religion and a nation/culture. More than 13 million people are now identified as Jews, with roughly six million living in the United States and five million in Israel.** Jews come in all shapes, sizes and nationalities. For example, there are black Jews from Ethiopia, Chinese Jews from Shanghai and Indian Jews from India. Practices and beliefs among Jews range from those who call themselves Jews but have nothing more to do with the religion or culture to rigidly Orthodox who strictly observe ancient Jewish precepts.

Today, Judaism is comprised of four major movements, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist. Reform is by far the largest today, but it has relatively few adherents in Israel where most Jews are either Orthodox (a minority) or do not affiliate with a particular movement. Most Israelis are often described as "secular," but most still observe Jewish holidays (many of which are national holidays in Israel) and are very knowledgeable about their history and culture (which is taught in public school). The Conservative movement is also very strong in the United States, but has yet to make significant inroads in Israel. Reconstructionism is the smallest, and newest movement and has virtually no presence in Israel. The Orthodox movement has grown in recent years in the United States and remains the strongest movement in Israel. The Orthodox, more so than the other movements, are also divided among different sects, such as Satmar and Chabad.
look at the following clip of what jewish people look like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBk9LBHbVgs

vansemmanuel JPA

A Jew is someone of a Jewish mother(or parent in Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism) or if the person is a convert to Judaism.

Judaism is a religion

Yes, someone can be atheist and still considered a Jew

Nazis said their was a "Jewish look" and this began many Jewish steriotypes later on. A Jewish name is a name common in Judaism. In my view there is no such thing because "Jewish names" are common everywhere with anyone.

Neil N

It's the Matzah ball soup baby.

Suckels Clown of Righteousness

Your question is very complicated and their is not an either/or, or yes or no answer. Judaism is a tribal group/religion. In the beginning all of the Jews were descendants of Abraham's child Issac. In time people married into the religion some were adopted or converted. In time it became harder to put the race label on Jews even though most of them have a genetic connection to Issac . At the same time Jews in distant lands began to look like the indigenous people due to intermarriage. This can be seen in Ethiopian and Chinese Jews.

It is complicated due to the tribal nature of the religion. Jews call conversion "joining the tribe". Things that would never fly in any other religion can be found in Judaism. A good example of this is a previous question asked here. The person asking worshiped the Fire God Ferris. The focus of the question was" ...would you PERSONALLY feel comfortable welcoming me not just as a fellow congregant at your Synagogue, but as a member of the Tribe?" (so he was clearly asking about converting to Judaism).

The response was "Reform Judaism covers a wide swath of beliefs and practices and I am sure you will be wholly accepted. ... I personally would accept you whole heartily as a fellow Jew."

I cannot post a link to the question you can search for it the head line for the question was "Question about Reform Judaism membership...?". I if you copy & paste it to your search window at the top of the page it should come up quickly.

So Judaism is unique since this kind of thing could never happen in any other religion. Judaism is officially divided into 4 "movements" Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist. Jews don't like calling the different groups Sects although they will call extinct groups of the past are sects. This is done even though the relationships between they are the same as divisions in Christianity. Officially they all recognize each other, unofficially nothing could be further from the truth. Reform Jews will tell you privately that they think that Orthodox Jews are to extreme, Orthodox will say Reform Jews are not real Jews since they do not follow the Torah. We will avoid the topic of "Messianic Jews".

So what makes a Jew a Jew. being born of a Jewish mother or conversion. As mentioned by others Reform may a except you as Jewish if either parent is Jewish. The State of Israel will not accept you as being Jewish unless you mother is Jewish or if you underwent a Orthodox conversion.

The "Jewish look" has nothing to do with Nazi Germany. I used to date Jewish girls exclusively. I thought they were very hot. I ended up marrying a woman with the "look" that was not Jewish. Jews often have slightly exaggerated facial features which makes them very attractive looking. Then tend to look slightly exotic but it is hard to describe beyond that. I never had a difficult time distinguishing them from other groups.

In Europe at the time of the Nazis extensive records were kept on everybody in all of the countries on Europe. If you went to a town other than where you lived to visit or live it was a law in most countries to let the police know who you were and where you were staying. Jews were considered a race in Europe at that time and that kind of information would be collected. Contrary to what has been said by others it was not something decided by a Christian sect. Jews always separated themselves from Christians. It was only natural for others to see them as a race since they traced their heritage to place and time apart from everyone around them.

Poles by the way were treated almost exactly the same as Jews in countries controlled by the Nazis. It was against the law for their children to be taught to read or write it was also against the law for them to be shown any act of kindness (giving cigarettes water etc). Poles and Slavs were considered non Humans just like the Jews were. The Nazis planned to exterminate them also or work them to death. Jews had a higher (top) priority in the plans on Nazi Germany. Poles and Slavs were next. It should be remembered that one half of the Poles that the Nazis killed in Concentration camps were Jews the rest were mostly Catholics, JWs and non Jews.

frankie

if you ask a rabbi, you need to believe in the Torah and live a devout, observant life.

if you ask an Israeli government official, you need to have had one ethnic Jewish grandparent on either side.

most israeli citizens are atheists or secular.

basically to Hitler,if you had Jewish blood you should be exterminated. he saw it as a race (an inferior one). as the story goes, he came across a Jewish man in a village he wanted to wipe out who had blonde hair and blue eyes and didn't look Jewish at all. so he asked the guy "do you have any family at all who aren't Jewish? any cousins, distant relatives, anything?" the man replied no, he was 100% jewish. so Hitler said "i'm sorry but i can't help you" and ordered the Nazis to shoot them all.

the ironic thing here is, the Israeli state seems to define Judaism in much the same way the Nazis did...funny how life is,isn't it?

___

It is very easy to tell.

If they are being murdered by Muslims, then they are probably Jewish. If they are given a place of their own and people want to take it away from them.. then they are Jewish.

If they defend themselves from several wars and invasions, and eventually have to keep land as a means to discourage future invasions..... and they are then called the "aggressor" and the one's "who started it." Then they are Jews.

If they are dying from certain diseases like Tay-Sachs, then they are ashkenazi, another race in and of itself. That disease only attacks those people.

Hatikvah JPA

Nazis knew who were Jews because it was documented in their I.D. records and men are circumcized.

We are NOT a race!! The myth of a Jewish race originated with the Roman Catholic Church. When they were offering Jews the choice of death or conversion to Christianity, they never fully accepted Jews into the Church if they had any Jewish great-grandparents. Hitler only built on what the Church began. ("Constantine's Sword" by former Catholic priest, James Carroll)

Yes, a born Jew can be an atheist and remain a Jew. Who is a Jew? Anyone bound by the 613 commandments of the Covenant (Testament/contract) between God and His people Israel. A born Jew remains a part of that Covenant, but becomes and apostate Jew if he worships other gods, i.e. Jesus, Vishnu, etc. Anyone seeking conversion will be be accepted if they do not believe in God or if they worship false gods.

We Jews are a “tribe,” a social grouping that has defined its existence and historical destiny as that of a family, an ethnos, a community that reproduces itself by giving birth to Jewish children. (The Jew-by-choice is no exception to this rule. According to our tradition, one who has converted to Judaism gives birth to or begets Jewish children, just as if she or he were a Jew by birth. One who chooses Judaism, in other words, has chosen to become a member of the tribe.) To say that we are a “tribe” is simply another way of saying that we are the people of Israel, a community that asserts its ongoing historical existence.

What exactly makes someone a Jew? The Covenant between God and His people Israel!
What does religion offer that we lonely human souls need? In a word, it offers COMMUNITY. Our place of worship offers us a refuge, an island of caring in the midst of a hostile, competitive world. In a society that segregates the old from the young, the rich from the poor, the successful from the struggling, the house of worship represents one place where the barriers fall and we all stand equal before God. It promises to be the one place in society where my gain does not have to mean your loss. The man worshiping next to you may be an insurance salesman or the manager of a rival business, but for the hour you spend together he is not trying to sell you anything or get ahead of you.
Durkheim concluded in his findings about primitive religions that the purpose of religion in its earliest manifestations was not so much to bring people to God as to bring people together, to protect them from having to see the world as a lonely, hostile place. In times of famine or flood, war or earthquake, people find comfort in facing the danger together. …When a child is born, when a daughter marries, when a husband dies, our you is increased or our sorrow eased when it is shared with others. There is perhaps nothing sadder than experiencing intense joy or intense grief and having no one to share it with.
I disagree with the televangelists’ privatizing of religion, making it a matter of the individual’s relationship with God rather than calling the individual to become part of a worshiping, celebrating community. And that is why I feel there is something lacking in the life of a person who says, “I believe strongly in God; I don’t need a building or a formal service to find Him.” Religion is COMMUNITY. It is a way people learn to relate to each other and to belong to each other in truly human ways.
The word “religion” comes from the same Latin root as the word “ligament.” It means “to bind.” As Durkheim discovered, what it does best is bind us to the people around us. Religion is not only a set of statements about God. Religion is also the COMMUNITY, the family through which we learn what it means to be human, and by which we are reinforced in our efforts to do what we believe is right. Religion puts our joys and our sorrows into a context. The birth of our children, the death of our parents are not just statistics. They serve as ways of strengthening or diminishing the community through which we make our lives matter.
“Who Needs God?” by Harold Kushner
.

Kevin S

Nazi easily figured out who was Jewish and who wasn't in germany. Jews look more like italians or greeks. In italy, killing Jews was only based on documents there. Documents were the main source of telling who was a jew in Germany as well. Jew basically means if you are part of ashkenazi, sephardic and mizrachi ethnic group. This is because all of these three are supposedly from ancient Judea. This is where the word Jew comes from. As for other "Jewish groups" they claim to be from other tribes of ancient Israel so they are not Jews but simply Israelites. Recent genetic studies have confirmed that ashkenazi, sephardic and mizrachi share almost entirely (notice I said that) the same DNA. For example, russian Jews are 8x different (in terms of DNA with the Russians while being extremely similar to Persian Jews.

Looking Jewish just means that someone looked Mediterranean. Basically, if I were to put a jewish man and an italian man next to each other with no beards headcaps or anything, you may not know who is italian and how is Jewish. Same goes with Greek, especially sicilian. The reason for this is not really because jews probably did come from ancient Judea. It is because most of the Jews in Russia and poland immigrated there from France and ITALY through germany. There are many polish and russian jews with italian and french last names with russian endings.

Esc | This is Islam

The Jews are a race as well as a religion.

They are a race because Judaism teaches that non-Jews or "righteous gentiles" who follow the Seven Noahide Laws which prohibit theft, adultery, envy, etc, can attain salvation. So, Judaism has never been a religion of mass preaching like Islam or Christianity. Most of today's Jews are direct descendants of the ancient Jews, i.e. the Hebrews/Israelites/"Children of Israel." After the destruction of the Jewish political presence in the Holy Land by the Romans in 68 AD, the last of the Jews were scattered over many nations. The chief rabbinate of Israel recognizes ten "Lost Tribes" from different parts of the world, including Ethiopia and India.

They are a religion because they do accept converts, although they do not preach and the conversion process is extremely rigid and typically takes two years. Judaism receives only about 10,000 converts a year.

Jews have no common ethnic traits because of the great distribution of the Lost Tribes. However, Ashkenazi Jews are generally white, a few with Turkic features, and Mizrahi/Shepardic Jews are more Semitic- or Mediterranean-looking. I've known many Jews who looked either perfectly European or perfectly "Arab." Hitler had a complex racial philosophy and he used eugenicist "scientists" to determine how "Aryan" anyone was. For example, there was a long-drawn-out debate over whether the Roma/Gypsies were white, since they spoke an Indo-European language, but when they were determined to be nonwhite they were exterminated. Hitler did not consider any Jews to be white whomsoever, and even Catholic priests with Jewish grandfathers were sent to the concentration camps. Ironically, there is speculation over whether Hitler's own grandfather, a German miller, was a Jew, and some believe Hitler is simply a corruption of the common German Jewish name "Heidler. "

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