According to ancestry.com, I have Jewish ancestors...

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Congrats! Half of my family are Ashkenazim.

I would like to see a show about white supremacists finding out they have Jewish ancestors... (Because it's not funny enough when they choose "Jewish" names for their offspring)

Churches are actually quite adept at keeping such records.

Well... I'm the 6th guy too. That makes three of us.

As for the OP - I recently found out I was part jewish too. A lot of them fled Austria and Germany around WWII and converted to Christianity (or at least faked it),and concealed their ancestry to gain entrance to their new countries. My great grandparents on my father's side did this. We knew they were German and left for political reasons, but we didn't know they were jewish until we inherited documents after their death that confirmed it.

Most Americans (and probably anyone from anywhere who has an American in their family tree) do have Native in their blood. I know I have Mohawk (although it's way back), English, German, and rumor has it I also have Irish (not sure about that one). I will have to look.

My family is Hungarian/Italian on my biological dad's side and my mom is Irish, so I'm going to assume that I have a lot of Catholic roots??? I dunno.

I look more Hungarian than Irish.

Last edited by xxZeromancerlovexx on 31 Dec 2012, 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No, it's just a case of two different concepts having a lot of overlap and sharing the same name. And it's not unique to Judaism. Haven't you heard the old Irish joke about the atheist being asked whether he is a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?

I am a girl but most like the guy in the reindeer jumper...lol

I don't think you understand. Judaism defines itself as both a religion and a nation.

Although there are certainly national groups that strongly identify with a particular religion as part of their national identity, there does not a bijection.

For example, in pre-reformation England the statement 'All Englishmen are Catholics' would be true (as all Jews were exiled from the Isle about 100 years before Chaucer's birth, and did not return until many centuries later, and Hindu and Islamic groups had not yet arrived) but the statement 'all Catholics are Englishmen' would clearly be false.

Additionally, it is important to note that although today there are countries, such as you mentioned, not to mention the entire Islamic world, that have very strongly held and relatively uniform, at least on the level of sects, religious beliefs, they have not always held them, and had nations, or at least tribal groupings long before the respective religion was even invented. The religion was adopted into an existing structure, and the said structure can exist without the religion.

With Judaism, being a member of the Jewish religion is exactly equivalent with being a member of the Jewish nation. Not only that, but they are integrated with each other to the point that one does not exist without the other.

But that's cheating, really. It's just that the word "Jewish" is used in a strange way.

Suppose I tell you about a man named Jacob. I tell you that Jacob doesn't have Jewish religious beliefs, but identifies as culturally Jewish, wants to be involved in Jewish weddings, funerals, and so on, and lives in Israel. And then I ask you whether Jacob is a member of the Jewish religion. You would probably say yes, right?

Well, what if I tell you a little less about Jacob instead? I simply say that there is a person X who has no Jewish religious beliefs, and ask you whether X is a member of the Jewish religion. You would probably say no, right?

I would say that by the traditional definition, both sets of data are irrelevant. Like citizenship, one who is a member of the Jewish Religion/nation by birth CANNOT LEAVE. Just as a criminal, a citizen of the USA, cannot claim that he is not a citizen and is not bound by its laws, so to here. Whether the individual actually follows the laws is irrelevant. For the most part, (barring the laws between man and his fellow man which are found in any secular system) this is between that individual and God.

In short, if you told me that his mother was a Jew by birth, then I would say this 'Jacob' is also a Jew by birth. In any other case barring a conversion, he is not Jewish at all.

Also, you are confusing being a citizen of the Modern State of Israel with being a member of the Jewish Nation, an error I warned against, apparently not well enough. Your confusion is understandable and forgivable, however.

It would be fallacious to not note that the sole connection to Judaism that many secular Jews (as in people who are Jewish by birth but do not practice the religion) have is through support of the State of Israel.

And as for the claim that I am 'cheating', that is ridiculous. That is how we have defined ourselves for thousands of years. If you find that weird, well that is not really my problem.