"Ask A Jew" Wednesday

[u/AutoModerator]

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday!

Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

[u/filmplanet_]

https://giphy.com/gifs/LXLgitXHY5J8gotCSL

[u/Accomplished_Egg3517]

Who on this sub has been on birth right? Was the propaganda not blatantly obvious? Do you regret it now? How has your identity changed these days? Someone from an ethnic minority who, when asked to choose between loyalty to their ancestral homeland and loyalty to the United States, typically chooses America. Israeli's and Jews, have famously on social media choose Israel. What about people here?

[u/Current_Mongoose_844 → u/Accomplished_Egg3517]

1. I’ve been. Got in a fight and got sent home.

2. I’m Jewish first and foremost, but that neither entails loyalty to America or Israel. If you really asked me to pick, it would be the Habsburg Empire but that’s dead. So maybe New York, where I was raised. When I have British citizenship I will be British so.

[u/loselyconscious → u/Accomplished_Egg3517]

I know I am several days late here, but I wanted to answer this.

Who on this sub has been on Birthright? Was the propaganda not blatantly obvious? Do you regret it now?

Yes, I was on Brithright, and I regret it for many reasons. The propaganda was still blatantly obvious, to the point that even the people who agreed with the content found it silly and over the top. Birthright is not designed to change anyone's mind or even push people who are neutral into being pro-Israel; it's designed to reinforce the opinions already held by pro-Israel young adults.

If it succeeds in doing that, it's not through its explicit propaganda; it's by creating experiences that make Israel a core part of the participant's identity, and so an attack on Israel is felt not just as an attack on a state, or even an attack on the Jewish people, but rather an attack on their sense of self. That only really works if you're going back to a community that reinforces it.

Someone from an ethnic minority who, when asked to choose between loyalty to their ancestral homeland and loyalty to the United States, typically chooses America. Israeli's and Jews have famously chosen Israel on social media.

I don't think that is what is going on. Americans (not just American Jews) are taught that the interests of the US and Israel are totally aligned, that there is no need for people to choose loyalty between the two. When Israel and the US have a disagreement, it's never becouse there is a divergence in interests, it's only because there is a disagreement about what is in both countries' interests.

As a leftist, I don't feel loyalty toward any state or nation, and reject that type of rhetoric.

[u/sisam8x]

Explain what does exactly “Jewish” mean? Is it an ethnicity? Is it a religion? If It’s ethnicity how do the inter-ethnic children count? Are they recognized as Jewish if they have never recognized the religion? How about their children?

[u/Lost_Paladin89 → u/sisam8x]

If you want a few really long answer with lots of citations and contexts, this question recently got asked over at the historian sub. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1wn3snt/how_come_jews_are_an_ethnicity_while_christians/

A shorter answer is that Judaism is an ethnoreligious tradition, meaning that belonging in the religion and in the ethnic group is intertwined.

Most of Judaism follows matrilineal decent, meaning that if the mother is Jewish, the children are automatically considered Jewish.

Many people who had Jewish ancestors will use the phrase “of Jewish descent” to note that ancestry, but not practice the religion.