Am I Jewish

[ctjacobs]

In Dutch law Morocans are a race. Geert Wilders has been prosecuted for race discrimination.
https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-e...natie.aspx

[Ismq]

Yes, Jews are humans thank you.

But we are also a "biblical people" as written in the Hebrew bible.

British is a nationality, Judaism is not.

What you are comparing it to is more on the lines of calling one an Israeli. If your mother was born in Israel and your father was born in Italy, then you are half Italian and half Israeli.

Being Jewish is totally different. We are "a people".

I think that what i have said applies to race too.

[searchinmyroots]

Judaism is not a race.

There are Jews from every country and every part of the world.

What does a Jew look like?

I found this webpage that shows a "small sample" of what a Jewish person may look like and where they are from -

 http://popchassid.com/10-photos-to-remin...ever-have/

[Blue Bird]

Judaism is not a race.

There are Jews from every country and every part of the world.

What does a Jew look like?

I found this webpage that shows a "small sample" of what a Jewish person may look like and where they are from -

 http://popchassid.com/10-photos-to-remin...ever-have/

Do you identify with everyone as fellow Jews, even if they aren't religious?

[searchinmyroots]

Do you identify with everyone as fellow Jews, even if they aren't religious?

Absolutely!

There are those who are just Jewish, those who follow Judaism and those who are Jewish and follow Judaism!

[Blue Bird]

Do you have genealogies or do you take his word that someone is Jewish and has a maternal Jewish lineage dating back to Biblical times? Or for example, if, as Chavak said, there is a Reform Jew who only has a Jewish father and he stands in front of you and says he is Jewish.

[searchinmyroots]

I take his word on it.

If he isn't telling the truth, then that is on him!

There are many records of those who are Jewish that go back a very long time.

And there are those that were lost and we really don't know.

Most likely though, if you know your grandmother or great grandmother was Jewish, I'd like to guess their genealogy goes way back.

I don't think many who were not Jewish were living a "Jewish" life or claiming to be Jewish although I'm sure there may have been some.

I know my great grandparents on both sides were Jewish and even have pictures of them.

[Quarinteen]

Would it not boil down to what you believe?

[RabbiO]

Would it not boil down to what you believe?

No.

[robrecht]

I am not Jewish nor am I any kind of expert on Jewish history and rabbinic teaching so take this with a BIG grain of salt. Yet I have read that Judaism has not always been matrilineal. Some earlier sects of Judaism (eg, Karaite) are patrilineal. Prior to rabbinic Judaism (Mishnah, Talmud), some say biblical Judaism was patrilineal. For example, Jabob's sons born of Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali) and of Zilpah (Gad and Asher) are the patriarchs of four of the twelve tribes of Israel, and yet Bilhah and Zilpah were not descended from Abraham--is that not right? Likewise, the Asenath, the Egyptian daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, was the mother of Manasseh and Ephraim.

This article might be worth a read. (Expensive unless you can find it in a scholarly library)