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Bonnie
>>Why do people think of Judaism as a race? It is not. It is a religion. I have never once seen anywhere that Judaism or Christianity was listed as a race.
The idea that Jewishness is a race is generally associated with anti-Semitism, and I think there is a connection. But I also think there is genuine innocent confusion among people who don't have ill feelings toward Jewish people.
One reason for this might be the Conservative and Orthodox teaching that Jewishness is decsended through the mother, and the Reform teaching that Jewishness can also be decsended through the father.
I don't think Christians have this idea of automatic religious decsendence. Rather, a child must be baptised to be considered a Christian. Some Christians don't believe in baptising babies, and instead wait until after the older child has professed an acceptance of Jesus. (Brat, please correct me if I'm wrong here.)
Anyway, post-Mendel, when people think of automatic decsendence, they think of genetics and DNA. When people think of genetics and DNA, they (wrongly, I think) think of race.
So when Jewish people say that any child born by a Jewish mother is Jewish, people think "Jewish" is a race, something that is carried in the genes and does not go away no matter what religion the child practices. This wrong-headed thinking is furthered by the idea of secular or non-religious Jews. If Jewishness is just a religion and not somehow something that resides within the physical being, then why would a non-religious person continue to think of herself (and be thought of) as "Jewish"? I understand Jewishness is made up of cultural practices in addition to religious practices, so this question is rhetorical to show how Jewishness might be confused with racial categories. I practice Christmas and Easter as fun family holiday get-togethers, but I'm not a Christian, and I don't call myself a secular Christian or a non-practicing Christian. I am simply a non-Christian. Christianity ended for me the moment I decided I didn't believe fundamental Christian teachings.
As an aside, I know some people like my father-in-law whose mother and father were Jewish (practicing the religion), and he decided as a young man that religion was not for him. He does not call himself a secular Jew, but then he hasn't stayed connected with any of the cultural practices either.
LC
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