Jewish Identity

Assimilation is when non-Jews love us so much they want to marry us. Anti-Semitism is when non-Jews hate us so much they want to kill us. Why can't we, for once, think about what we think of ourselves?

I have long been uncomfortable with the concept of the "Chosen People". To suggest that as Jews we are somehow closer to G-d than all other nations smacks of arrogance, elitism, and racial prejudice.

My mother was a fairly devout Italian Catholic and my father an Anglican skeptic who never went to church. I was always so confused. Then I discovered Judaism, and I love it! What's my next step?

I have yet to meet a Jew who doesn't proudly claim, "My grandfather was a rabbi." It seems that three generations ago everyone was a rabbi!

Sages and mystics explore the primordial "mind" of G-d to ask: Is it the Torah that makes the Jew a Jew, or is it the Jew who makes the Torah a Torah?

I know that there are many logical proofs for the truth of Judaism. But at the end of the day, how do you know that yours is the right way? What makes you so sure?

Jews have always been called the "chosen people," because that's how we are described in the Bible. But what does it mean to be "chosen"? Chosen for what? How did we get to be chosen? Why did G-d have to choose a people?

I'm an atheist. I married a non-Jew and have no wish to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. My question is: can I consider myself non-Jewish, or do I need some sort of form or dispensation to be officially no longer Jewish?

Once we start understanding Judaism in its own language, all the questions dissolve. Not “religion,” but “brit”—meaning covenant. Not “convert,” but “ger”—a naturalized immigrant.

My mother was Protestant and my father was an atheist Jew. My family survived the holocaust in Europe with great struggle. Am I Jewish or am I a gentile?

There are two basic components to a human being: (a) his essence, and (b) that which he projects forth, such as his talents and abilities . . .

Jewishness became matrilineal as soon as Jewishness was born. There is no reason to believe otherwise.

What does the word "Hebrew" mean? And how did that become the name of the first Jews?

Abraham, commonly referred to as "The First Jew," epitomized "Jewishness" many centuries before the term came into common use

There are African Jews, Japanese Jews, even Eskimo Jews. It seems difficult to call such a mixture a "race"

Isn't it racist to believe you're special because you're Jewish? How is that any different from the Nazi belief in the "superiority" of the Aryan race, for example?

My fiancé's parents told me that for a Jew to marry a non-Jew is worse than the Holocaust! I don't get it. Am I really that terrible?

My question is: my parents aren't religious, we never kept kosher or any of the festivals.Why all of a sudden are they so Jewish when it comes to who I marry?

I am Baptist and my boyfriend is Jewish. Can we still make it work? I am trying to learn about Judaism

I often hear rabbis complain that the Jewish people are shrinking due to intermarriage and assimilation. But you are the major obstacle to Judaism growing! If you would make conversion a bit easier, many more non-Jews would join us...