Are Gentiles really Gentiles?

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Hitler said that everyone with any Jewish ancestors whatsoever was Jewish. While he was wrong on that, it is true that Jews have dispersed over time to every part of the world, intermarrying here and there. So, how Gentile are "Gentiles" today? We have this idea that there are these two stark groups, but the fact is that, what with many Jews pretending to be Gentiles (historically even changing their first and last names) to avoid persecution as Jews, no one really knows how Jewish or Gentile they themselves might be.

Last edited by Ragtime on 05 Jan 2009, 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Nazi racial laws were a bit more subtle than that. The Nazis did not have a "one drop" rule. If they had, then half the people of Germany would have been "tainted". Jews lived in Germany for over 600 years and they intermarried frequently.

ruveyn

I'd say they're pretty Gentile in the Congo. Gentile or Savage, not Jewish anyway. Maybe they're Bantus in the Congo, or would they be Nilotes? I'm not so well up on my African ethnic groups.

If we're going to debate the point seriously - and I see no point in doing so beyond flexing that Brain muscle that takes care of abstract reasoning - then we'd have to agree with the previous poster. Jewishness for the Nazis wasn't simple biology, it was a set of social behaviours determined by biology. Therefore, the less Jewish blood, the less Jewish behaviour. I guess the 25% rule was an arbitrary number. People always hated Jews, but because of the spread of race doctrine and the turmoil brought about by the social and economic changes in the drive towards modernity, they declared holocaust.

It was never about ugly noses or bad hairstyles. It was about keeping society stable. If your nose was less than 25% ugly, then you posed a negligable danger

You can't be born Jewish because it's not a question of genetics; it's a decision that you have to make for yourself, even if that decision is initially imposed on you by someone else. That means that if you're a Gentile, you're 100% Gentile, because you decided to be one.

That makes about as much sense as asking "How non-Roman are we? Because the decedents of the Romans spread the love around quite a lot!".

Are you pointing out the flaw with the other thread?

'Jew' is related to Judaism - so it's to do with religion/indoctrination/mind set not race. I believe the word Gentile means non Israeli (in biblical terms), so you are asking are Gentiles really Gentiles, well the term has no real significance in modern terms, I know I have no links to modern Israel though .

The other thread should perhaps read 'are Jews really SEMITES?' I imagine there would be similar confusion between genetics and religion in that topic also.

IMO the human race originated from one place (probably Africa) and this obsession with tracing back our generations to see if we are from one place or another to try and make up 'connections' is a waste of time.

I love trapdoor Berk!

We are all humans racially. Semites are a linguistic and cultural group and genes have nothing to do with it. One is a Semite (descendant of Shem) by virtue of his having been nurtured in a Semitic society or culture.

Modern Jews have inherited a religion (and associated culture) of Semitic origin. They need not be Semites per se. I am American born and my crib language is English. I happen to know Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish but that is because I learned these languages. My genes had nothing to do with it.

ruveyn