lol! :) It's complicated and confusing, which is why exchanges like this take place. It's a very fine line between "race" and "nation" - I suppose you could say that not everyone born in America is of the same "race" (I really hate that - there's only one race: the human race), and people can come from other nations and join the nation of America, thus becoming American, even if they weren't born there. In the same way, you can be born Jewish or you can become Jewish through conversion (the equivalent of naturalisation, I suppose?). It's a long and arduous process. A prospective convert has to learn to change his/her habits, learn to cook a new way, learn a new language and customs - it really is much like changing your nationality in a lot of ways. It can take years - certainly no less than one year at least. But Jews come in all shapes, colours and so on, being Caucasian, Black, Asian, European, Middle Eastern... It's just stereotypes and (in some cases, like Hitler) ignorance and extreme bigotry that perpetuate the idea of a "Jewish race".
I've also encountered a lot of Jews who themselves are ignorant of what it means to be a Jew. Then you also have the ******* debate over "Who is a Jew?" - the Orthodox and Conservative accept matrilineal descent only, whereas Reform/Pr...
lol! :) It's complicated and confusing, which is why exchanges like this take place. It's a very fine line between "race" and "nation" - I suppose you could say that not everyone born in America is of the same "race" (I really hate that - there's only one race: the human race), and people can come from other nations and join the nation of America, thus becoming American, even if they weren't born there. In the same way, you can be born Jewish or you can become Jewish through conversion (the equivalent of naturalisation, I suppose?). It's a long and arduous process. A prospective convert has to learn to change his/her habits, learn to cook a new way, learn a new language and customs - it really is much like changing your nationality in a lot of ways. It can take years - certainly no less than one year at least. But Jews come in all shapes, colours and so on, being Caucasian, Black, Asian, European, Middle Eastern... It's just stereotypes and (in some cases, like Hitler) ignorance and extreme bigotry that perpetuate the idea of a "Jewish race".
I've also encountered a lot of Jews who themselves are ignorant of what it means to be a Jew. Then you also have the ******* debate over "Who is a Jew?" - the Orthodox and Conservative accept matrilineal descent only, whereas Reform/Progressive and Reconstructionist accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent. Then there are other smaller groups like the Karaites who only accept patrilineal descent. Confused, yet? **** So you can see why there is so much disagreement and why it's so unclear as to just what it means to be Jewish. :)
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