MaxE wrote:
As there is an Autism Spectrum there is also a Jewishness Spectrum. If not convinced, spend a little time at
Jew or Not Jew.
Anyway, in my case, I was raised by atheists (my mother actually joined the Methodist Church for social reasons but admitted to me not long before her death at 92 that she never believed any of that stuff).
Anyway, I was always somewhat attracted to Judaism (there may be reasons why aspies would find Judaism an attractive religion) but it would have been an idle interest except that 30 years ago I was engaged to a Jewish woman and decided to convert via the Reformed branch which makes it debatable whether I am in fact Jewish or not.
I could talk about how halachically valid my conversion was but won't. One motivation was that I didn't want to raise my kids in one of those interfaith homes where they light the menorah on a credenza next to the Christmas tree.
The fact is that I have continued to practice Judaism ever since. In fact I have fasted every Yom Kippur (at one point I learned there was a study to determine how many Jews actually practice Judaism and apparently the minimum criterion was fasting on Yom Kippur). I haven't much worried whether other people consider me Jewish however I generally expect they won't because there's usually no reason to think so and I don't feel a need to bring it up.
But I did feel I should post to this thread.
You are who or what you believe yourself to be. If you believe yourself to be a Jew, regardless of birth, then you are a Jew.
There are of course limits to this rule - if you believe yourself to be Superman, and you jump off a skyscraper, chances are, in the remainder of your life, you'll realize that you are in fact not Superman.
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-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer