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?

There is no such thing as conversion to Judaism. In fact, there is no word for "conversion" in the language of the Torah. As for Judaism, I don’t believe such a thing exists. What is this, some kind of religion? Get this straight: There is Torah and there are Jews. No isms. No religion. Just us Jews caught up in this struggle to hold onto the Torah.

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...

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...

My Jewish friends are mostly indifferent or even hostile towards their own religion, while I love Judaism and strongly desire to become a Jew. Then this rabbi tells me that "Judaism is not for you" ?!

The Jews and Greeks could have learned so much from each other! Instead, the extremists of both sides hit the battlefield

I like Shabbat. I like Torah, especially the Kabbalah stuff and Chassidic stories. I feel a strong attachment to the Jewish people. But I'm a non-conformist at heart -- I just can't see myself following all those regulations

I have always felt that the essence of spirituality is that, underneath it all, we are all one. Isn't it absurd to characterize a soul as "Jewish"? Why put souls in boxes?

I was accosted at the beach today by a guy from Jews for Jesus. He offered me a New Testament in Yiddish and said that many Jews have been "saved" by accepting Jesus as the messiah.

Are there Jewish fundamentalists, the way that there are those folks in Christianity and Islam? What would the core beliefs of a "Jewish fundamentalist" be?

As a rabbi, I assume you believe that Judaism is THE truth. If so, how do you explain the fact that there are so many other religions, and only a tiny minority of the world's population believes as you do?

Can you see a time when all Jews will follow the same customs?

I try to live by the words of John Lennon: Imagine there's no countries / It isn't hard to do / Nothing to kill or die for / No religion too.... Isn't that what life is about?

If Tevye's Judaism is anything to go by, don't you think it's time for an updated version?

Interestingly, as much as we have taken from alien cultures in the course of our thousands of years in exile, these cultures were even more affected than we were

In all seriousness, laughing has been an important part of Judaism since biblical times. But what is the source of the Jewish sense of humor in our times? Is it nature or nurture?