Jewish Identity

The homeland of the Jews (also called Israelites) is Israel, which means literally, “One who struggles with G‑d.”

There comes a time when a Jew has to state openly and proudly who they are.

What is Judaism? Who is it for? What are the basic Jewish beliefs, texts, and sacred places?

A Jew is anyone who was born of a Jewish mother, or has undergone conversion to Judaism according to halachah (Jewish law).

The Code of Jewish Law states that a child of a Jewish mother is Jewish, regardless of the father’s lineage.

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?

How are we to determine who is Jewish, and what are we to do with the information once we have it?

Tribal affiliation follows the direct paternal line, while the question of Jewishness follows the maternal line. Does this mean that genetic testing is a valid way of ascertaining whether one is Jewish or a kohen?

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?

What happens when a Jewish family adopts a non-Jewish child? And how does conversion fit into the picture?

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?

For all practical purposes, Israelite is synonymous with Jew or Hebrew.

Isn’t it a little unfair that all my life I was more Jewish than my friends, was even subjected to anti-Semitism, and after all that I’m told I need to convert?

That's like a room of two thousand people, with one puny guy sitting in the corner whom everyone wants to talk to (or pick on)!

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’m planning to convert to Judaism. This has been something I’ve been considering and mulling over for years, and I’ve made my decision. What should I expect? What will the process look like?

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.

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!

Funny thing, nobody is ever shocked by the discovery that their mother is Inuit. What’s so different about being Jewish?

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?

Anti-Semites make all sorts of contradictory statements about why they hate Jews. At their core, those who hate others actually hate themselves.

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?

My family has no Jewish roots whatsoever. Can you offer any explanation as to why I am drawn to Judaism in this way?

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

Today there are African Jews, Japanese Jews, even Inuit 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?

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”?!

Keeping kosher is not a reasonable act, and neither is Shabbat, or the prohibition against mixing wool and linen. These are neither rational nor religious acts—at least not in the modern understanding of “religious” . . .

He may be the son of a survivor, but can we say once and for all that he is not Jewish?

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.

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 don’t want my children to be small-minded or fundamentalist, so I haven’t given them a Jewish education. They have been brought up without any religion; they are free to choose whatever beliefs they like.

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?

What do you say to people like me who simply are not inspired by Judaism?

I pay my taxes, I am friendly to people around me, and I am charitable to those less fortunate. Doesn’t that make me a good person?

My Chabad rabbi has been bugging me to take off one semester to study in a yeshiva “some time before graduate school.” It’s still not clear to me what this yeshiva place is all about, and definitely not clear why I should take off in the middle of my studies to go there.

Should communal funds and effort should be focused primarily on one group of Jews and give up on the others. Do you agree that we should give up on an entire group of Jews?

My teenage son plays basketball very well. He plans join the team at an excellent college and hopefully go professional. I am finding it difficult that my son is focused solely on his basketball future. Everything else is secondary to the sport, including his Judaism. So what do I do?

G‑d did not choose Abraham. It was his inherent superiority, and the fact that he was ready to give everything up for the sake of G‑d, that compelled G‑d to choose him.

Why are Jewish people living in the United States speaking German? Can’t they speak in English, or at least Hebrew?

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

At almost every function I attend, a wedding, kid's birthday party or communal gathering, someone comes up to me and says, "Rabbi, do you know why I don't go to synagogue...."

The problem with rabbis is you always talk about the Jewish future, Jewish continuity, Jews marrying Jews. What about the rest of humanity?

My nine-year-old son is the only Jewish child in his school. He has been disappointed numerous times because of the scheduling of fun and exciting events on major Jewish holidays. This has happened again this year. His school's overnight fieldtrip is scheduled on a Jewish holiday.

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?

Isn't it a bit parochial and exclusionary to calim that we are the "chosen" people?

What are the steps that are designed for entering the faith? Can they be done without the temple standing in Jerusalem? And what is the lesson for everyone?

A Jew is a Jew, always.