Kesher Talk

Interesting discussion in this thread on Jonathan's blog The Head Heeb. I have some problems with general definitions there. It seems to me that while one cannot choose his ethnicity, he can certainly choose his nationality or religion.

I was born in Russia to a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. In the Soviet Union they went by the father's ethnicity, so I was considered Russian. In Israel they go by the mother, so I am considered Jewish. In America, I am an American. By choosing where I live (as much as one can choose), I choose my nationality.

8opus is right in that when a person converts to Judaism, he joins the Jewish nation (BTW, there is a cognate word in Hebrew for religion: "dat"). The conversion does not change that person's ethnicity, of course, but Judaism is not really concerned with ethnicity in the first place. Furthermore, I'd go as far as to argue that it is not really concerned with religion all that much, as far as acceptance of new members into the community/nation is in question. It sounds like a paradox, but if you know secular Israel, you can easily imagine a gentile going through the whole tedious religious process of conversion, being accepted into the community, and not observing a single religious rule thereafter. In fact, such a person could theoretically convert to any other religion later on. It probably would be problematic socially, but not much more than if the person was ethnically Jewish to begin with. And I doubt it would jeopardize that person's Israeli citizenship. This, of course, would be unacceptable if the community in question was a religious one, but an ethnic Jew's secularity would be just as unacceptable. My point is that at least as far as new member acceptance, religion acts simply as rite of passage, rather than a continuous condition.

A person can become an Israeli citizen under three alternative conditions:
1. Having had one's ancestors living continuously in Palestine before and after the establishment of the state of Israel.
2. Being ethnically Jewish, i.e. born to a Jewish mother.
3. Having been converted to Judaism, without the need to actually practice the Jewish religion afterwards.

Thus I really see no problem with a Jewish democratic state, where non-Jews enjoy equal rights to those Jews do. The real problem is the proportions in the population: what happens when Jews, ethnic and otherwise, are no longer a majority in Israel.

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 1/27/2003 12:52:57 AM