I understand your frustration. I can trace my Jewish family back to the early 1500s in Eastern Europe. My dna comes up with Jewish ancestry among some other ancestry. My ggg grandfather was buried in the Old Jewish Quarter of Rookwood Cemetery in NSW Australia. I was raised by my grandmother who was of Jewish decent, yet I am not seen as Jewish even though I have this history and identity as an ethnic Jew. I know the orthodox view comes through the mother, the Torah view is it comes through the father, it was after the second temple was destroyed that the Rabbis changed this idea to the mother. Genesis 15:5 and Deuteronomy 1:10 says we will number like “stars in the sky”. Surely this talks about all of us Jews who are the products of intermarriage no matter how far back it goes. Because the Jewish population certainly does not number like stars in the sky to this day even if you included those descended from the mother or even if you included both mother and father descendancy.
What disappoints me is as Jews we are so ready to cast our opinions as who we class as Jew, it’s sad as it for me at least, resembles the ideology of Hitler.
We should be embracing each other with support and care instead of being the “guardian's of the gate” of who is Jewish or not. Especially in this day and age!!
I understand your frustration. I can trace my Jewish family back to the early 1500s in Eastern Europe. My dna comes up with Jewish ancestry among some other ancestry. My ggg grandfather was buried in the Old Jewish Quarter of Rookwood Cemetery in NSW Australia. I was raised by my grandmother who was of Jewish decent, yet I am not seen as Jewish even though I have this history and identity as an ethnic Jew. I know the orthodox view comes through the mother, the Torah view is it comes through the father, it was after the second temple was destroyed that the Rabbis changed this idea to the mother. Genesis 15:5 and Deuteronomy 1:10 says we will number like “stars in the sky”. Surely this talks about all of us Jews who are the products of intermarriage no matter how far back it goes. Because the Jewish population certainly does not number like stars in the sky to this day even if you included those descended from the mother or even if you included both mother and father descendancy.
What disappoints me is as Jews we are so ready to cast our opinions as who we class as Jew, it’s sad as it for me at least, resembles the ideology of Hitler.
We should be embracing each other with support and care instead of being the “guardian's of the gate” of who is Jewish or not. Especially in this day and age!!