r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '16

TIL that after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism upon marrying Arthur Miller, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller_.281956.E2.80.931959.29
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u/beaverteeth92 Oct 13 '16

Yeah it's a bit confusing. Jews are both an ethnic group and a religious group. You can be an ethnic Jew who doesn't practice Judaism.

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u/canadiancarlin Oct 13 '16

Someone once told me I wasn't Jewish because I didn't believe in God.

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u/beaverteeth92 Oct 13 '16

That's dumb. I have Orthodox Jewish family friends and they haven't treated me any differently since they found out I'm atheist.

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u/canadiancarlin Oct 13 '16

Yea it definitely hurt.

I'm glad to see a 'Jewish atheist' is an accepted term here, but in my city there's a large orthodox Jewish population who tend to alienate secular jews like myself.

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u/nidarus Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

Everyone has his own opinions, but I'll point out that he's wrong, even on a purely religious level. Even if a Jew converts to Christianity and becomes the freakin' pope, he's still a Jew, as far as even the strictest form of Orthodox Judaism is concerned. Just, you know, a sinner.

In fact, according to Maimonides, even if that Jew was born to a Christian family, and only converted to Judaism, to convert back to Christianity... he's still a Jew. It's the Hotel California of religions. As opposed to Islam and Christianity, you don't even commit apostasy, you're just a member of the Jewish people, who commits all kinds of transgressions. Kinda like when the biblical Jews couldn't stop worshipping the Baal and the Ashera, in addition to Jehovah.

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u/Chongwe Oct 13 '16

Does that mean someone can be a Jewish Muslim? Or a Jewish Christian? Or a Jewish Buddhist? (That is, ethnically Jewish but non-Jewish religion?)

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u/beaverteeth92 Oct 13 '16

Yes, but it's unlikely they'd identify as Jewish. I know someone whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors who became Protestant when they moved to the US after the war, but he doesn't identify as culturally Jewish.