My understanding of Judaism obviously doesn’t come from primary sources hence asking here for correction of any misunderstandings I have.

My understanding of the trope(sorry if the use of the word trope is offensive I’m trying to refer to the depiction of Judaism I’ve seen in media) of wanting Jewish men to marry Jewish women but the inverse not being true comes from the tradition that Judaism is passed down matrilineally. The reasoning behind that being that you can’t really question who the baby popped out of but paternity is much more questionable(again sorry if that is offensive it is just the explanation I’ve been given).

The other relevant thing I’ve heard about Judaism is an interpretation of God that I personally love. I was told that while God gave certain rules he also gave us brains in our heads. So if those rules have loop holes and we find them it’s because that was God’s intention.

With those two things in mind could a Rabbi not argue that with modern DNA tests Judaism could reasonably be passed down through either parent?

On a semi unrelated note but thinking about this made me question my understanding of kosher laws as well. With the rise of lab grown meats would crab or lobster meat that has never been in a shell be considered shell fish?

I’m sorry if any/everything I’ve said was offensive or hurtful in any way, just after this specific exposure to Judaism in media I had questions and didn’t know where else to ask

Edit: I swear I am trying to get to everyone but I am honestly overwhelmed. I’ve never had a post on anything get this much attention. I promise I plan to respond to every comment but please remember I am only human

Edit 2: Thank you all so much for all the kind informative comments you’ve left. I feel truly blessed by the kindness and compassion you’ve all shown me

Hi everyone,

I know that there are some posts on patrilineal descent, but many are from over 5 years ago and do not address my specific situation, so I hope this is not considered a repost.

I am a young adult woman who is feeling lost in navigating her Jewish and Israeli identities, especially since 10/7. According to others close to me I am in an odd situation, so allow me to explain:

About my family background: Ethnically, the majority of my ancestry is Jewish. Having done genetic testing, my father has 100% Jewish ancestry, and my mother has 25% Jewish ancestry from her paternal grandfather (who went into hiding during the Holocaust and lost most of his family). My parents were not born in Israel, but both moved there as small children, grew up there, and served in the IDF. They met in Israel, but moved to the U.S. and had a non-Jewish wedding in the U.S. before I was born. They had moved away partially due to mistreatment that my mother faced for her "shiksha" status and mistreatment that my father faced for marrying her. They and I still have many connections in Israel, including one set of grandparents and many aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

About my upbringing: Growing up put me in a very odd, in-between headspace. My parents speak Hebrew amongst themselves, but never taught me, leading me to know just enough Hebrew to understand the premise of many conversations but not enough to understand fluently and speak. Israeli foods were staples growing up (e.g., Bamba and shkedei marak were my childhood), and I attended several Israeli functions (including Pesach seders and Hannukah events, even though no one explained what any of it meant, especially since I grew up in a non-religious home). I have been on birthright, and have also gone to Israel many other times because of my connections there. My parents oscillated between saying "you're half-Jewish," "you're not Jewish," and "don't tell anyone you're Jewish, people are dangerous." The more time that passes and the more people I meet, the more I realize that despite being born in the U.S., there is a reason that most of my friends ended up being immigrants or children of immigrants, why I generally feel more comfortable around Jews (and especially Israeli Jews) despite apparently never being one of them, and why I have been emotionally affected by antisemitism/anti-Israel rhetoric far before 10/7 even happened.

About what I wish for: I wish to not feel like I'm lying when I tell someone I'm Jewish. I wish to not feel like an imposter when going to Jewish events, when grieving for the loss of Jewish people, and when defending Israel and Jews against antisemites (which I have). I wish to learn Hebrew "all the way" (fluently) and learn more parts of Jewish cultural traditions, such as how to help host a Friday night kiddush and knowing what holidays like Sukkot are about, all while maintaining my secular status. I wish to marry a Jewish man who accepts my background, and have a wedding that includes Jewish cultural traditions. I want this man and his family to consider me as Jewish as any other Jew. I wish for my future children to be raised in a non-religious, but culturally Jewish, household. I want my children to feel comfortable in their own Jewish identity and being part of the Jewish community.

My question to you: Are any of my wishes attainable? If so, how?

So I recently took a Family Tree DNA test, and the results were unsurprising except for one thing. My maternal great grandparents were Eastern European Jews who fled pogroms at the turn of the century and came to America; my paternal grandfather was a German immigrant with some broader European ancestry and my paternal grandmother a Polish immigrant. All of this was reflected on the test, but, there was no Ashkenazic Jewish results. Maybe it’s because of a result of intermarriage (I got like 5% middle eastern and 2% Native American, which I understand can be convoluted with Askhenazic), but has anyone else gotten similar results? It’s weird to me because I have a distinct matrilineal line and, at the risk of being offense, my mothers side of the family and I look very stereotypically Jewish. My Jewish identity is a big part of who I am, and I’d like to make sense of this.

Hii sorry if this question comes off stupidly. So I've been just wondering if those who are ethnically Ashkenazi are middle eastern or have a percentage of middle eastern DNA in them! If this question is offensive or wrong pls let me know and I'll take down this asap!! sorry

Has anyone done 23andMe or other DNA testing? I'm interested in the ancestry and health option but still suspicious after the 23andMe hack. Has anyone had any experiences with the DNA/health testing that they found illuminating such as finding out you were more Sephardic/Ashkenazi/Southern Italian than you thought, or finding out that you or your partner are carriers for Tay Sach's? Also, any advice on how safe the data actually is is appreciated.

I’m an Ashkenazi Jew born in Ukraine. Recently I got results of my DNA test and to my surprise I am 99% Ashkenazi and 1% danish. I always assumed that I must have something else in my gene pool. Have you guy done a DNA test and what are you guys?

Hi everyone! I recently became interested in my ancestry and began poking around in my family tree. I found out that my great-great grandmother (right down the maternal line) was likely Jewish based on a 1920 US census record that her and her parents' mother tongue was Hebrew, and she was born in Lithuania/Russia.

This was really cool to discover because I've always been so interested in Jewish culture and the overall religion, especially how so many aspects of it contrast with the parts of Christianity I dislike (I was raised Catholic but am currently agnostic). Funnily enough, I went to preschool in a synagogue. My earliest understanding of Judaism was eating challah bread with my class every Friday. But I had no idea I had any Jewish ancestry. Looking back, the women on my maternal side would frequent some Yiddish phrases ("tchotchke", "oy vey", etc) but that could just be a New York thing. I also always knew my mother's side was eastern european, but that's not necessarily an indication of anything.

Anyways, I really want to look more into this part of my family history but unfortunately aside from this census record I've found nothing else outright referencing her Jewishness, and that side of my family has unfortunately all passed on so it wouldn't be easy to get info from family sources. I've pretty much exhausted all possible records (even got an Ancestry account) with different maiden name spellings and am still at a loss for any info on her parents or siblings.

I'm not exactly looking for genealogy help, mostly just venting about this dead end. I'd love to learn more about my ancestors and explore more about Jewish culture, but without any sense of their history with Judaism it feels illegitimate. I also understand that since Judaism comes from maternal heritage I'm maybe... technically Jewish? Which feels weird as I haven't been raised in the religion at all, and I would never claim that identity for myself.

Anyone else been in a similar situation or have any resources for someone looking to connect with/appreciate newly discovered Jewish ancestry?

My great grandparents had last names like Stein and Mandel and i was trying to find out where they came from (doing genealogy to learn more about my family). I found that they emigrated from sekitsch in (serbia) yugoslavia and the family they left behind died in the camps there, but because they were german not because they were jewish. I'm stuck there as there aren't many records and wondered if i'd have better luck searching jewish archives. My dad's family wasn't great at communication and if it wasn't for my efforts i wouldn't have even known anything about the camps.

I found some document that said my great grandparents were lutheran, so clearly not jewish and no jewish traditions were passed down to my dad or grandmother (afaik), but there were quite a few jew~ish names in sekitsch which made me wonder. Even if it's just an incredibly small percentage, it'd be cool to know i'm of jewish ancestry. Obviously I know the rules and would never claim to be jewish, so i just wanna get that out of the way, but I 100 percent support the jewish people as I am christian.

If I offend anyone please let me know how and why, it's not my intent, I just want to know more about my family. I also have autism and frequently make social mistakes and they are a result of my symptoms and never on purpose. I sincerely thank you for any replies, including criticism. Only by learning can i become better than i was yesterday.

Cladistics is the study of the "family tree" of living things. Organisms that share a common ancestor are in the same clade. This is generally determined through genetic analysis when possible, and through fossil evidence when not.

Okay. What does this have to do with kashrut?

So there's a funny thing about kosher mammals. The signs of a kosher mammal are that it has split hooves and chews its cud. What's neat about this is that kosher mammals, as it turns out, are a monophyletic group - meaning that all kosher mammals share a common ancestor, and there is no descendant of that common ancestor that is NOT kosher. Specifically, the Ruminantia, or ruminants.

This is awfully coincidental, especially when there are so many animals that seem almost kosher (horses for example) but are not close relatives of the kosher animals at all. So let's play with an idea: that the actual determining factor of what makes an animal kosher is its genetic ancestry, and the physical traits are simply indicators for people who did not have the means of determining an animal's ancestry.

Now, the second-closest relative of the ruminants that are not themselves ruminants are the Suina, the pigs. Now the interesting thing is that there is a long-established tradition that in the World to Come, the pig will become kosher. Under traditional understanding of Kashrut, in which kashrut is determined by physical features and not genetic ancestry, this would break the theory, since even if the pig was changed to chew its cud, it would still not be a descendant of the ruminant's common ancestor.

But let's play with an idea - what if this transformation is not simply physical, but rather a transformation in the halachic definition of the kosher mammals themselves? Meaning, the common ancestor of kosher animals gets moved back to the common ancestor of ruminants and pigs, thereby including pigs within the kosher clade.

Except there is one lineage that is closer to ruminants than pigs. If cladistic kashrut is real, it would change that currently non-kosher clade to be kosher as well in the World to Come.

That clade is whippomorpha - the hippopotamuses and whales.

Behemoth and Leviathan.

I take my leave.

I have done my dna and I have come back 25% Jewish (Ashkenazi) - this is true of what I know from my maternal grandmother born to a Jewish family in the war.

My grandmother was Jewish her father was Belarusian and mother was polish. They were involved in the holloucast and it is very very difficult to trace my granny’s family members. I do know her father (my great grandfather) family name was newiaski. The family went into hiding in Belgium during the war, they were discovered by the nazis and were on a train to be sent to Auschwitz concentration camp when she was a baby. However miraculously the French resistance at the time blew up the railway tracks of this particular train and my granny was separated from her family and adopted by a wonderful French family who looked after her and took her in. She stayed living in the French country side until 16 when her father tracked her down and traced her via the Red Cross. He moved her back to London however she never had contact with her birth mother and her brother sadly passed away.

It is a very sensitive story and as you can imagine she doesn’t like talking about her past, however I would be so grateful to find out more about her family and potentially contact some cousins as this would be life changing.

Does anyone know of any resources I could use. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️

One of our Shabbos table discussions was about mamzerim... I learned that most Rabbonim today try to find any way possible to say a potential mamzer is negative for this status.

However, does halacha in this context allow for DNA evidence to be used or would Rabbonim similarly not take this into account because of it's near irrefutable evidence that could cause the status to be unfortunately positive?

Hello,

So this is a bit complicated and I guess unusual, didn't really find anything about this on the internet but I am trying to reconnect with my ancestry.

So I actually grew up in Europe but my parents are Palestinian. Paternally, my family is aware of significant Jewish ancestry. But not in the traditional style, as in "we know that person X and Y was Jewish" but rather in the entire village knew their ancestors were Jewish. The "common story" know is that at some point they converted to another religion although kept some of the traditions. For example some people used to keep the Shabbat (and apparently some still do, although they won't make it public for obvious reasons) while the older graves have these candle boxes (sorry, I am not sure what they're called). It is unfortunate that this village didn't really have any proper records. Those that existed within the Ottoman period aren't with the village, and who knows who actually has them. Even if they were found, with the way names and especially last names were commonly changed it would be difficult to gather any meaningful information. Either way we know that the majority of the village was Jewish at some point. I have also taken a DNA test and got a high percentage of Mizrahi Jewish ancestry but these are often inaccurate and at best only hint towards actual ancestry (and I should know that, given I am a geneticist). I am unsure of the maternal lineage because their village records all disappeared and I haven't had the time yet to properly investigate. It's difficult to do if you're like me and speak neither Arabic nor Hebrew, nor live there, but so far I know that at least one person in this village 4 generations ago was Jewish, and there was a lot of intermixing but that's all I know thus far.

So I know I have at least some direct Jewish ancestry, I am not religiously Jewish and I know that Orthodox Judaism doesn't accept patrilineal lineage either way. But Reform Judaism does and secular Jews often continue this lineage by calling themselves cultural or ethnic Jews. I am not ethnically Jewish in the way people would expect. The reason I am asking is because I don't want to be offensive to Jews or claim something I have no right to claim as people usually understand this in terms of the most popular viewpoints. Obviously, I also don't want to fuel any further antisemitism by random people to which I wouldn't know how to respond to.

I've (22F) only dated one other Jew by this point in my life. It has never been something important to me. I'm not very religious (I'm an atheist), and am not exactly a super practicing Jew. My heritage has always been important to me, but as I've gotten older its become more and more so. I'm deeply proud to be Jewish. I'm proud of what my ancestors survived.

I'm of the mindset that being Jewish is my ethnicity. It isn't just a religion to me. I'm not even fully Jewish and many Jews may not even consider me one. My father is Jewish and my mother converted after I was born. But it's in my DNA. I am 50% Jewish according to Ancestry. It may not be 100%, but it means a lot to me.

And I realized, when I have children, they'll have even less Jewish DNA. I don't like that. Yet, I don't like that I feel this way. DNA isn't the only reason I want to marry another Jew. I want to raise my children Jewish. I want to continue the traditions. I even want to become more practicing myself at this point. But, logically, I could do that with a non-Jew. I would personally never, even before I came to this realization, date someone that was super religious in another religion. So, why am I now set on marrying another Jew? It feels wrong. It feels bigoted.

Also, how do I even meet someone? I'm not religious enough for a matchmaker and the dating apps suck. I know I'm young, but I want to settle down. I'm done just dating around.

Zera Yisrael (“Seed of Israel”) is a legal category in Jewish law that denotes the blood descendants of Jews who, for one reason or another, are not legally of Jewish ethnicity according to religious criteria.

Is this a generally accepted term in the Jewish community for people with Jewish ancestry who are not Jewish?

Shabbat Shalom!

Like the title says- not asking if I’m Jewish, I’m a Jew by Choice, already went in front of my beit din etc.

I am trying to do research on family members that I believe may have been Jewish, but am not sure and none of the ones that would know are currently alive. They lived in Galicia in the mid-late 1800s. American records list them as Polish, Ukrainian, Ruthenian, or Russian depending on the source. There is also some first and last name changes at various times, which makes things difficult.

I believe they lived in Przemyśl or Ocieka in what’s currently considered Subcarpathian Voivodeship. If they were Galitzianers, would this show on any sort of DNA test as Ashkenazi? I would also love any resources re: Galician Jews if you have them, with only being able to read English, I’ve hit a bunch of stumbling blocks in my research. Regardless if they are Jewish or not, I would like to adopt that minhag as a Jew by Choice, since that’s my matrilineal line, if that’s appropriate.

Thanks!

What function does the figure of the patrilineal Jew play in Orthodox Judaism? Is it deliberately left as a position of unreconciled non-identity? As a spectre or warning against intermarriage maybe (look what could befall you)? Isn’t that a cruel fate though?

What does it mean to carry tribe but not religion in any real sense within the community?

It seems so arbitrary. I often see people on here share that they’ve discovered matrilineality through DNA tests and are immediately welcomed in. For me, as a patrilineal, it’s a very strange spectacle.

I’ve had Jews look at me with completely blank expressions querying why I imagine I have any relation to Judaism whatsoever.

It’s the law. It’s ineffable. Immutable. Is there no further illumination that can be offered? I find it very difficult to make peace with.

Thanks for your understanding.

Edit: The question that emerged out of this thread is what has been done historically within an orthodox Halachic framework to attend to the experiences of privation (of Jewish identity) had by patrilineals. I understand the laws are not deemed man made -so it’s not a question of changing the law. My question concerns the “work arounds” (my analogy was the “Shabbat goy” as an instance of “working around” the law) attempted within the law.

Thanks again for understanding. I’m walking the line and trying to find the right way forward. Being able to raise issues here is immensely helpful, and much appreciated.

I want to address and give people something to refer to when they run into this argument about Ashkenazi Jews being "white European colonialists", based solely on their appearance, skin color or eye color.

To preface this - Yes, many Jews are not Ashkenazi, I don't mean to say that all Jews are Ashkenazi Jews, I'm just addressing this bit of accusation / propaganda that's pretty popular (and even within Israel people seem to find things like blue eyes or blonde hair as more of a European characteristic)

1. While Ashkenazi Jews were exiled to Europe, their origins, culture and history are Levantine. Modern DNA studies find that most modern Jewish groups (including Ashkenazi Jews) can trace 50% or more of their ancestry to the Levant (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10212583/) (with the other portion for Ashkenazi Jews being mainly southern European (Roman or Greek) and a small portion of Eastern European or other admixtures).
2. Groups that show individuals with larger (up to 100%) Levantine ancestry like Christian Lebanese and Christian Palestinians have many pale, light haired and blue eyed individuals. Ahed Tamimi, the blond, blue eyed Palestinian activist, is from a family of Christian origin for example (https://web.archive.org/web/20190331020153/https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-ahed-tamimi-s-family-ridicules-israel-s-secret-probe-of-their-identity-1.5765380). There's many people here on Reddit with 100% Levantine DNA that have light skin and blue eyes (https://np.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/ffmovm/palestinian_from_chile_my_results/, https://np.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/18qmq1m/lebanese_protestant_results/) and many Syrian, Lebanese, Druze, Palestinians and Samaritans that have some or all of these characteristics. 100% Levantine DNA rules out these characteristics having a European origin in these populations. Many Samaritans have lighter skin, blue eyes and even ginger hair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofi_Tsedaka).
3. Anecdotally, Christian Palestinians with a similar admixture to Ashkenazi Jews look like Ashkenazi Jews (https://np.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/i54xxj/the_results_are_in_my_dad_is_100_palestinian_and/)
4. There's historical examples of blonde haired, blue eyed and light skinned individuals living in the Levant that have an Iranian origin from 6500 years ago (these aren't considered the ancestors of the Canaanites as far as I'm aware, but it's additional proof that these aren't necessarily European traits, https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2018-08-20/ty-article-magazine/mysterious-6-500-year-old-culture-in-israel-brought-by-migrants/0000017f-debc-db22-a17f-febdcf2d0000)
5. There's many Ashkenazi Jews that have darker hair, eyes or skin, many Sephardi Jews that have blond hair and blue eyes. It's also likely for these populations that have southern European admixture to have more of these recessive traits like blue eyes be expressed.
6. Jewish culture and Hebrew are Levantine in origin and have been preserved for generations. Yiddish is written in Hebrew characters and uses Hebrew words despite being Germanic (which is more of a cultural influence). While Ashkenazi Jews might have foods that are more European historically, this is a fairly reasonable cultural influence from neighbors rather than an indicator of origin.
7. Ashkenazi Jews have had genetic bottlenecks, so if for example a majority of a small group of people had these traits which as established aren't so rare and aren't necessarily European, them being more common in Ashkenazis (due to genetic shift and endogamy) aren't a sign of them being "foreign" to Israel and the Levant.

Of course there's many Levantine people who are darker skinned / haired / eyed as well, my point here is strictly that those traits don't mean you're not Levantine or are European.

Slightly long one but I’m struggling with this, and some context is needed first:

My granddad’s parents both were captured and sent to Auschwitz (and came back) as Jews. I am unclear to this day whether they were practicing Jews but I know they fled the Warsaw ghetto during Hitler’s rise to power. My toddler granddad was hidden in another family during the war.

My grandma’s dad was killed in the camps for being a communist but her mum was Jewish - again, unclear on whether practising or not. My grandma was also hidden in a catholic family for the duration of WW2.

Their stories and the ensuing trauma are very much alive in our family, but we are resolutely non-religious - I would say proudly so on my grandparents’ part. My grandma always says she only identifies as Jewish when there is antisemitism, so in the face of oppression. Given she had to be hidden, I understand that.

I, however don’t identify as Jewish and genuinely struggle with the concept of “secular Jews” and a “Jewish ethnicity” given the number of diasporas. Likewise, our family do not observe any Jewish festivals or traditions - we are aware of them but that’s all, so I’d struggle to even say there is anything culturally Jewish about our family.

I asked my mum and she said she does identify as Jewish because if antisemitism came back like it did in the 1930s and 1940s, we would be persecuted. She also cited matrilineal descent, which to me is a religious rule rather than a sure fire way to claim direct descent from the 12 sons of Jacob (edited to remove the glaring mistake - I knew this, honest, was just not focused!). The idea of Jewish “DNA” to me implies that there is such a thing as a Jewish “race” which would mean the nazis’ ideas were founded on some truth. I refuse to let anyone with such ideas define my identity. I am very uncomfortable with defining myself solely in relation with oppression.

I am really not trying to be controversial, but I would like to know, what defines a “secular Jew” in your view? Is there such a thing as “just ethnic or cultural Jews”? If so, how would you explain this?

Thanks in advance

I have European Jewish history and I bet some DNA services are better than others.

When they tell you about related people, are those only people in their database or do the differences share databases?

My grandfather had two wives and maybe one in Western Europe before that. He was proudly Sephardic.

I heard my great grandmother on one side came from Russia and she was the orphan of a family of rabbis. I'm interested in tracing that line as well.

I'd like to know about recommended DNA services and any comments you have.

Hello, I found out I'm 5% European Jewish, is that enough to get involved in the Jewish community? Just wondering since I'm Latino and was born in South America.

Update: Thank you all for the great messages, suggestions and information about what I should do next. Really appreciate the information, thank you all.

I am very proud to announce that our database of names from the "United Hebrew Congregation Centro Macabeo" ashkenazi cemetery in Havana, Cuba(Guanabacoa) has been updated. We now have a total of 2,112 individuals in this database.

I believe this database now contains *most* of the individuals buried in this cemetery.

The majority of names in this database were sourced from a ledger of names kept by the cemetery staff, a copy of which was provided to us very kindly by one of our readers.

Because the names are transcribed exactly as they appear in the source, some names and last names may be spelled differently than expected.

https://cubaresearchproject.com/2023/06/16/names-from-the-united-hebrew-congregation-cemetery-centro-macabeo-cemetery/

Hello everyone, I’ve been pondering this question for a long time and I can’t seem to find a solid answer or know where to start. I don’t know if I’m Jewish or not, my aunt and cousins all live Jewish lives and my cousins had their bar mitzvahs in Israel but while digging I found out that my mother and aunt were converted as infants because my grandmother’s grandmother was adopted and because of this my rabbi said to me that I’m not Jewish if there’s no proof that she was Jewish before the adoption. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

First time poster, long time lurker. I (21F) am having a hard time figuring out how I feel, why I feel what I feel, and just general confusion around my Jewish identity.

I was raised by two Jewish parents who grew up knowing about Jewish culture/religion but didn’t necessarily practice. No DNA tests can confirm this, but extensive family records of family trees/immigration documentation prove everything they have told me. Mom went to Sunday school, had her bat mitzvah, dad had his bar mitzvah as an adult due to traumatic childhood. My dad pushed for us to be raised orthodox/more conservative leaning, so my sisters and I attended a very small, conseevative/orthodox Jewish day school. Half the day was Hebrew/jewish culture, the other half everything else the state required. I have a lot of religious trauma stemming from not fitting in due to having more reform ideals, parents telling other people we weren’t “Jewish enough” to be around their kids outside of school, or stating that they only wanted their kids to know Jewish people (unrealistic imo but whatever). I went there for 7 years, starting when I was 2. Did 3 more years of Sunday school then taught Sunday school for 2. I’m just so confused by myself and by the world at this point. As much as I was raised to be someone who was religious and proud of their culture, I rejected everything about it unless otherwise obligated to after my bat mitzvah. I was tired of not being enough because my beliefs were different and as much as part of me so desperately wants something to have faith in, I have such a hard time actively connecting to the religion side of things.

Culturally was different. I’m the third generation American in my family with everyone before that coming from or living in Poland. No matter what views I had religion wise, it was engraved in my brain that no matter what, being Jewish was something that even if I don’t practice, people would still have opinions on. I always stood up for myself and my culture at school, and the first to defend others in the same situation regardless of their views, but always experienced hate. In high school since one of my friends was Palestinian, people would make jokes about us, we had a teacher pull us aside in front of other students to ask if being in the same class would be an issue (even though we sat together and were talking), proceeded to imply he wanted to see if that were true by pairing us on projects since it was a history class. I had another history teacher who taught blatantly wrong information during honors world history which focused on the origins of monotheistic culture i.e Judaism. She would use incorrect maps (time wise) taught the class that “the Israelites moved to Palestine” (not even joking her exact words) which when I corrected, told me I needed to check my geography. I’ve had insensitive comments about the holocaust made by people who barely even knew me but also from people who did, who knew most of my family died in Auschwitz and other surrounding death camps.

With everything starting on 10/7, the after effects, the continuing justification of the vilification of an entire culture over millenia, I’m even more confused. I’m terrified of people finding out I’m Jewish (which is near impossible given I was only given a Jewish/yiddish/hebrew name) and that either people off the bat either assume I’m Eastern European or a very white passing Latina (small part of dad side is Sephardi with him dominantly having those genetics and my moms side being entirely ashkenazi). Lack of opportinity is not an issue as i work with a lot of jewish people, and have direct contact with chabbad leadership near me. I want to be more involved in the community but even in reform shuls felt like an outsider. part of me wants to learn if i can even have the same religious faith again or not. I'm just so overwhelmingly confused. i feel terrified and even though i read of so many people who feel the same, every time i think about getting involved, the way I've been treated by my own community pushes me away from it. I've never really had any jewish friend i felt comfortable around, with the exception being family friends who were raised as essentially more siblings.

i don't really know if this made sense or seems like a bunch of word vomit honestly, but advice or help is very much appreciated. open to friends as well… idk just anything? i feel so lost, terrified and alone but i know i shouldn't.

For context, my family background is that my grandmother on my mom`s side had a Jewish mother and an agnostic father. She was raised mostly without much reference to religion as far as she remembers, but she became an orphan when she was a child. She was sent to live with family on her father`s side, and when they couldn`t deal with her, they sent her to a Christian boarding school for the remainder of her childhood. She didn`t remember that she was Jewish until she got interested in geneology long after she had already become a grandmother. So we don`t have any of the traditions or cultural connection to Judaism, unfortunately, since my grandmother`s uncle basically erased that part of her heritage when she was sent to live under his care. My grandmother has since found birth certificates and immigration paperwork that proves her Jewish ancestry, and she also took a geneology dna test, which showed 50% Eastern European Jewish. Since finding out her family history, she met her cousins in Israel and started to remember a few things about her childhood that she had forgotten, though like I said, her mother and father mostly raised her without talking about religion.

Anyway, regarding the question at hand, I have told my 7 year old son this story, along with other parts of his background. We were watching Prince of Egypt yesterday and at the end, he said, "there should be a festival that celebrates this!" after the people are led out of Egypt. (We live in Japan and if you know anything about Japan, you will know there are countless festivals every year celebrating all kinds of historical events, so it was a natural conclusion for him lol). I told him that there was, actually, and it is called Passover, and celebrated by Jewish people. He asked if we could celebrate it this year.

I honestly dont know the answer to this. I told him that because my family stopped following the traditions, we dont know how to do it. As I said, we live in Japan (rural), and there are definitely no resources that I could access locally like a synagogue etc. I am not even sure if it would be okay for us to celebrate Passover at all because although there is a straight line from the women of my family, it has been a few generations since anyone was a practicing Jewish person in my family. I dont really know if people consider it to be disrespectful, which I really dont want to be. Still, my son is innocently interested in his own background and he wants to know more about it. My husband is of the opinion that it would be okay to look up how to celebrate and do it as a family. I`m wondering about the opinion of others about this though because I want to be respectful. I also dont really know where to start if we did decide to celebrate. Anyway, thanks for any input about this.

"The Talmud, an ancient book of Jewish civil and religious laws, states that if a woman bears two sons who die of bleeding after circumcision (removal of the foreskin from the penis), any additional sons that she has should not be circumcised. (The bleeding is most likely due to the X-linked disorder hemophilia.) Furthermore, the Talmud states that the sons of her sisters must not be circumcised, whereas the sons of her brothers should be. Is this religious law consistent with sound genetic principles? Explain your answer."

If anyone knows where this is in the Talmud, I'd certainly be interested in seeing what the actual text says. Regardless, pretty cool to see a mention of the Talmud in something like this!