I am also a patrilineal Jew. Ashkenazi. However, my Catholic mother did what she could to erase my Jewish “side” through lies, deceptions, and certainly through ignorance. Oddly enough, in a Jewish group on Facebook I recently posted a question about the significance of being a descendant of a tribe of Israel. I mentioned my patrilineal Jewish heritage and I was astounded to be rudely, crudely, vehemently rejected by literally hundreds of members of the group. To be treated by your fellow Jews this way, in my opinion, is abominable. I AM Jewish, married by a rabbi in a Reformed synagogue without a “conversion”. I lost over 40 members of my family during the Holocaust. How can humans achieve peace in this world when we cannot even accept those with whom we have close genetic ties?

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