Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site pertec.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!scgvaxd!pertec!toni From: toni@pertec.UUCP (Toni poper) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Who Is A Jew? -- Another perspective Message-ID: <244@pertec.UUCP> Date: Thu, 11-Oct-84 22:25:03 EDT Article-I.D.: pertec.244 Posted: Thu Oct 11 22:25:03 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Oct-84 08:01:02 EDT Organization: Pertec Computer Corp., Irvine, CA Lines: 69 Shalom. Now that I have a real USENET connection instead of reading newsgroup postings off of printouts, I can enter into the fray myself. Since we seem to be into credentials of a sort here, I will give you mine. I am an American Jew of eastern european ancestry. I was brought up in a very Reform household in Orange County, California -- better known as the heartland of the John Birch Society. I have lived through and delt with all the situations encountered growing up in such an environment -- being called "Christ killer" -- being asked to explain the significance of the major Jewish holiday called "Hanukkah" (after all, it must be major since it occurs around the same time as Christmas) to my elementary schoolmates. -- Having to put up with manditory high school assemblies in which the guest tells us that the only way he has been able to achieve such stature in his life is because he has accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. -- being told by my "born again" school-mates that I was dammed to a "hell" in which I did not even believe; but because they loved me so (and I was Jewish so I was worth extra conversion brownie points) they would save me from such a fate. As far as my Jewish religious training, I went to my temple's religious school from second grade through high-school. Starting with the fourth grade, I attended hebrew school until my Bat-Mitzvah at age thirteen. I will not go into my feelings about the quality of the religious education I received. It did, if nothing else, leave me with a hunger for Learning. There is a point to all this. After reading all the receint articles on "Who Is A Jew" et al, I am left by many of you with a feeling much like I experienced through my public school days -- the need to defend and hold close to my Jewish identity. Does it truly make a difference in my Jewishness that my great-grandparents and grandparents came from eastern europe? Does the possibility that my great-grandparents may have had leftist political or philosophical leanings make me less Jewish? If you believed that a new political philosophy would bring peace and equality to the world, would you be able to see far enough into the future to see how it could be twisted? This is certainly a gross simplification, but it is what many people believed at the time.If my great-grandparents believed this, are they, therefore, responsible for what happened in eastern europe? Are they less Jewish for this belief? What difference should it make if my more direct ancestors came from Eastern Europe or the Meditarian region? Does this make me more or less Jewish? Does the fact that I live in the United States and grew up in a non-Jewish area make me less of a Jew? I may be biologically and environmentally influenced my my ancestors, but I am who I am -- a product of elements I cannot control and elements I can control -- a product of a Jewish, Kohen father and a Jewish mother. I am a female Jew, strong in my foundation as a Jew because I chose to be Jewish against the pulls of assimilation. On a purely female note. It is hard enough being a progressive, female Jew asking for religious recognition from a male-controlled community that believes that tradition is law. I know many of you can give me many reasons and show me many places where it says... We will leave this, perhaps for another time; for if I am not, in your eyes, even Jewish to begin with, the discussion would be moot. -- Toni M. Poper pertec computer corp {ucbvax!unisoft | scgvaxd | trwrb | felix}!pertec!toni