Are Jews a "Race"?
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While the Jewish people began with the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, many people have converted to become Jews over the millennia--beginning with the "mixed multitude" that came with us out of Egypt. Today there are African Jews, Japanese Jews, even Eskimo Jews. It seems difficult to call such a mixture a "race".
(Incidently, there is really no such thing as a "race." The term "race" implies to most people that there are different categories of human beings based on their genetic makeup. The fact is that there is no basis in genetics for these distinctions. For example, an African from one family may have more in common genetically with a Swede than with another African.)
What could be said is that we are a "family". A family can adopt others as their own. But there are conditions to adoption. You need to keep the family rules. In our case, those rules have to do with the mission we were given at Mount Sinai over 3300 years ago.
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Latest Comments:
Thanks for the pertinent article. I wish you would publish something on the same scientific argument of defining race in alot more publicaions. In America the classification of race is loosly defined as the color of skin or dramatic differences in appearance for the sole sake of maintaining non-discriminatory social policy and measuring the effects of. This is good and this was very successful in the Universiy and Educational system for integrating segregated communities into one common ground as a people of one free nation. People of all races and religions can be treated equally and fairly in public society with all protections under the law, and protected from a mob rule, or majority dictatorship. In such a place minorities are not protected under the social structure in public, or private areas of society.
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Philo says some intersting things on this matter: including that the gentiles considered genes and genetics in high regards. For example, the Pharaohs, Persian kings and many others practiced incest to keep the blood line pure. They rejected and detested foreign blood and even had "nazi" like detestation and patriotism in regards to race. Philo points out that Jews had no problem with racial intermarriages. The Jewish concern was more on whether the gentile was a convert or not. If the person was not a convert and remained a cultural pagan, that was the sin issue. Thus people such as Zipporah, Ruth, Jethro and his descendants, Rahab, and many others, such as the wives of the kings of Israel and Judah, or male converts, had no conflict with Jewish law, and where seen and treated as jews. (Converts, I think, could not be eligible to be kings or high priests, according to Jewish law).
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Finally, Karen, et al., someone here actually gets it. Wonderful!
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That's pretty much the bottom line: It all depends upon one's definition of race.
Many Jews do have some common genetic alleles, yet the vast, vast amount of the relevant human 3 billion base-pair genome is nearly identical.
EX: You can not successfully transplant an organ from one species to another, but has been accomplished among any of the so-called races. Tissues are matched for blood type and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, not external characteristics like noses or skin color, or if donor and recipient has similar religious beliefs. To do so would be murder.
Re: the notion of "Jewish blood," say a matrilineal Jew undergoes a bone-marrow transplant from Muslim Arab donor. When the donor's marrow replaces all the patient's blood several months later, by the "Jewish blood" definition, the recipient has been biologically expelled from Judaism!
Biologically ALL modern humans are H. sapiens, sapiens. The 2nd sapiens denotes subspecies, thus Jews are not a true race.
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It is true that one cannot become a Jew by simply joining a synagogue or learning Hebrew. However, while it may be hard, one can indeed convert and become a full fledged Jew. In fact, the reason it is not so easy to become Jewish is precisely because of its unique definition as a "family."
For more on this see Why Is Conversion to Judaism So Hard?
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The jews are, in fact, a race. Its a very common misconception but here's my arguement. Anyone can convert to Catholicism. Anyone can choose what to believe in. You however CANNOT correctly convert to Judaism. You can become a member of the temple, believe in what the jews believe in and learn hebrew but you can't become a jew. One has to be born with jewish blood, of jewish descent, to be a jew and there are certain features (like the steriotypical nose) but people just count them as white. They have different genes and thats what seperates races. Arabs and jews are both races AS WELL as religions. The encompasing term is 'semite' but people usually count them as white;Just as eskimo refers to Inuits and Yupiks. Is this not a very valid and sensable arguement?
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Food for Thought:
Does a woman who goes through the arduous process of conversion to Judaism become a member of a different race than the one to which they were born? Are her children then of the so-called "Jewish Race?"
Does a Jew who converts to another faith "leave" the Jewish Race and join another?
Ok, now here are the two relevant definitions of race in Webster's Medical Dictionary:
1. a : an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also : a taxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group b : breed
2: a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits.
Thus definition 2:a might be applied to a set of peoples, say, Sephardim. But that makes them a "different race" than Ashkenazim. Do you buy that thesis?
BTW, having genetic diseases does not a race make; these occur in any narrow mating pool, IE: Mediterranean Beta Thalassemia. Finally, genes provide only a fraction of our phenotypes, epigenetics is just as important.
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jews are not a race. that is like saying japanese, and chinese are separate races. the fact is that the jews were a chosen people, not chosen based on dna, but chosen based on their strict following of Gods commandments and Godly way of living. There were many groups of people that inhabited the same areas and had the same ancestory as jews back in the time of ancient jerusalem, and they are the same race as jews, yet not jews. the idea of shared genetic diseases proves nothing more than close relation to a particular person that had those genetic issues. Whites, blacks, asians, and Jews?? give me a break, Jews are middle easterners and are the same race as a lot of palestinians, arabs, and others from the middle east. to claim that jews are a separate race is just plain elitetism. the jews were Gods chosen people, that does not mean a separate race.
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Genetically, we CAN inherit genes based on ancestry, such as the breast cancer gene for the Ashkenazi Jews. So, in that way, yes, we are a race. No, we are not a race based on sociology, because we come in all sizes, shapes and colors.
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