My only comment is that using Whoopi (real name Caryn Elaine Johnson) as a source for anything is strictly a losing proposition. Her idiotic, as usual, comments, trivialized the slaughter of 6 million human beings.
Whoopi is a clown. Whoopi is short for "Whoopi cushion"; she was given that name because she passes gas a lot. Which is the best you can expect from her.
Add to that today we have DNA analysis. Jews are DNA identifiable by various ‘markers’ through which many people have ‘rediscovered’ their Jewish ancestry.
Here’s a list of links to 11 DNA studies I put together on the subject:
I have read articles on the Future of Jewish website here which strongly assert Ashkenazi ancestry to the original Jews of Israel, from 3000 years ago. I said in reply to this that many Jews who identify as Ashkenazi do not have DNA markers (genotype) which are said to define Genetic Jewishness. Thus, we are indeed, multi-racial, of many Races but of one Faith. How so? Because many people converted into Judaism in our history, and retained their original genotype, and are as Jewish as you or I.
I appreciate what you’re saying here, particularly as someone from a very mixed family that was reminded of the fact that I am different than people with 4 Jewish grandparents. Unfortunately, however, what you’ve written is incorrect at basically every point. Jews are not a faith except according to 19th century bourgeoisie that adopted Christian-style language in order to appear more “civilized” to Europeans. And not that many people converted to Judaism, mainly because it was illegal to do so. There were so many Church and Secular laws—so many of them backed by terrible violence—forbidding Europeans not only from converting to Judaism, but from sitting with Jews, eating with Jews, doing business with Jews, being friends with Jews, playing music with Jews, having sex with Jews, and so on so forth.
So when you say that, “ …many Jews who identify as Ashkenazi do not have DNA markers … which are said to define Genetic Jewishness,” this is shockingly incorrect. Of all the Jewish groups you could have picked to say this about, you picked the one diasporic group that is extremely genetically funneled due to genetic isolation—again, Europeans made it illegal to convert to Judaism—and massacres that further funneled the gene pool. This is group is a monoform. With such an extremely homogenous population, the idea that “some” Ashkenazim would have markers of “Genetic Jewishness” but not nearly every single one is nonsensical. The only ‘Ashkenazim’ that don’t have markers of “Genetic Jewishness” are the few ethnic non-Jews that converted to Judaism in the 20th and 21st centuries, and who specifically adopted Ashkenazi Rite for davening. Otherwise, Ashkenazim appear nearly genetically identical to Western Sephardim—and Western Sephardim are genetically clearly derived from Ancient Israel.
I know that, traumatized by the Holocaust, there is this gut reflex need to disown the idea of being a monolithic people. It’s scary to be victims of racism, and so for many Jews in America, there is a tendency to run away from the reality of being a fairly homogenous ethnic group by boosting people like me that convert, or people with no Jewish ancestry that have converted. But people like us are an extreme minority; most Jews are actually ethnic Jews. And there’s nothing wrong with that; Judaism is not a Missionary “Faith”; we do not believe that non-Jews have to become Jews, we do not believe that they have to convert, and as a consequence of that, people largely do not convert to Judaism. The same could be said about any other ethnic ‘religion,’ to which people do not convert like Hinduism.
Like I said, as someone from a mixed background, and as someone that did a conversion process to affirm my Jewishness, I appreciate your attempt to say that people like me are “just as Jewish as [you],” but the lived reality of any convert is that in a (non-Synagogue) room of 100 Jews, if you are the convert, the other 99 people are born Jews unless you are in a very unusual community. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But this fear of the reality of Jewish homogeneity is just a post-Holocaust reflex. This doesn’t help Jews, and it certainly doesn’t help Judaism.
We justify everything about ourselves by our sense of lineage; open a siddur, and the davening is all about our relationship to our shared ancestors and to our collective homeland. But if you disregard shared ancestry, then the next step is to say, “Well we’re not really connected to the Land of Israel because we’re not actually Israelites, so I will stop saying brachos about HaShem restoring the Land and Jerusalem, etc.” So not only does what you’ve said not help us, it actually hurts us. This hurts Judaism because this is not how Ethnic-Religions work. Ethnic-Religions are ethnic, and Jews are an ethnicity—a fairly provably homogenous one.
Thank you for your principled and well argued reply. Certainly Ashkenazi Jews are homogenous. But when the ethnicity (of Jews ‘as a whole’) is discussed, there are Black Jews of Africa (The Falasha and the Zimbabwe Jews), The Jews of China who are East Asian, and the blond blue eyed Jews of Siberia. Non of these groups are or carry the markers distinct to either the Ashkenazim or the Sephardim. Certainly there is an Ethnic element to many Jews, and I accept this. But not all. Best wishes.
You make me wonder about the difference or non-difference between theology and ideology. Great piece, again. It is also fascinating to consider the obsession of one group of people with another group - jewhaters obsessing about Jews, many white men obsessing about blacks, one Christian sect obsessing about another or this Jew about that Jew, or Sunnis vs Shia vs wahhabi vs salafi etc. Maybe there are two kinds of people. People who see themselves as victims . . . pass the peanuts.
Whilst there are Jew haters that are obsessed with us, I also know a few non Jews who are obsessed that they were not born Jewish, as they love us so much. One or two friends I consider ‘honorary Jews’, as they have such ‘chine & humour’ that they could almost pass as Jewish.
I grew up going to a reform Sunday school because my parents had no idea what to do with their Jew (just can't come to use the word Jew-ish) minds and heritage. They didn't want to be religious but most of their friends were Jews. I grew up watching my friends go to church, playing soccer on their church teams. Wanted to go to church for a long time. Maybe be a priest. Had no respect for the 'rabbi' of the reform temple even as a 6yo. Then went to Israel and everything changed, except for still enjoying my nonJew friends and families.
We’ve all got ‘journeys’ behind us, some more interesting and challenging than others .. the key is playing the hand we have been dealt, the best way we can.
Excellent piece. I shuttered when I saw that the Nazis called Jews subhuman. I was fired as a prof at the U of Guelph for calling Hamas Nazis based on the complaint of two radical anti semites, one a prof, one a VP. What did the prof call Jews publicly? Subhuman.
Glad I read the comments before looking at this Whoopie is another satanic evil who is antisemite keep your opinions to yourselves no one who’s to hear it. Well no one with a brain anyway
It's difficult to disagree with any of the points that you make.
The problem I see, the absolute illogic of the antisemites is the business whereby you refer to Jews being considered a 'threat to the white race'.
How many aggressive wars of conquest have been waged by Jews, either via the State of Israel or by any sub-national Jewish organisation?
How many airliners have Jewish terrorists hijacked?
How many suicide bombings have been conducted by Jewish extremists?
How many rockets / bombs / missiles have been directed randomly into civilian neighbourhoods by Jewish terrorist organisations?
In short, other than blatantly amateur KKK type propaganda, what serious evidence is there of such a thing?
Whereas, we have Islamic States whose leaders make speeches boasting that they shall scour Israel from the face of the earth with fire.
We have Islamist States referring to the West as the 'Great Satan' or the 'Little Satan'.
We have Islamic organisations whose very charters call for the obliteration of all things Jewish.
We have Islamic organisations openly saying - and reported as saying - that the objective of Islam is world domination.
And yet, and yet, the anti semitic hate marches continue. Hate Marches which openly call for the elimination of Israel. And somehow, somehow, Western governments tacitly and openly recognise the terrorists diplomatically and criticise Israel for defending itself.
To return to my opening point - how, in any sane world can Israel, can the Jews be considered a threat, particularly where other religious ideologies make no secret of their aggressive and violent objectives and daily demonstrate - via more & ongoing violence - their belief in such objectives?
To paraphrase a much maligned and misquoted speech:
“We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation . . . it is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.”
what is clear is that race as we think of it today was an invention of 19th century Europeans. Yet is has become central and religious to those who are Afro centric or any other group posing themselves as different from Europe. The ancient people noted differences but didn't think in terms of racial classifications. The Jewish people are an ethno-religious group....intra Jewish distinctions have now been blown out of proportion to be used against us....especially hating Jews from the European diaspora as "colonizers" of so called "brown" people though Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians may be fair skinned. Years ago at university my prof of mid east history told me when I questioned her about travel to Arab countries...."they'll just think you're Syrian,"
I see on Finding your Roots on PBS, the Black guests are thrilled to find out they are majority sub saharan African. When Jews are shown 100 per cent Ashkenazi Jewish, they sound more disappointed and resigned. David Dacovney....upon learning of his ancestors lost in the Holocaust....said he never thought of himself as Jewish. If Israel were still majority from E. Europe diaspora like myself , they'd still be there legitimately . But true enough....the anti Zionists have now conferred "Arabness" on the Jews they dispossessed or massacred even prior to Israel's independence and of course the massive dispossession and theft of property from Jews who pre date the Arab imperialist colonial settler invasion .... after '48.
So Christians are evil because of hatred of Jews. Hindus aren't mentioned and not once does the word Islam or Muslim appear. Are you kidding me? You seriously are telling us that Jews should not fear Muslims? Who the hell invaded Israel on October 7, 2023? Mennonites? Amish? Baptists? Methodists? Hindus? or Mormons?
Than there is this:
The Far-Right views Jews as an ominous threat to the White race. This can most demonstrably be seen in Nazi and neo-Nazi narratives, in addition to those of the Ku Klux Klan, White Aryan Resistance, Christian Identity Movement, and others.
Only someone utterly ignorant of American history would place the KKK on "The Right." The KKK was a 100% terrorist group manned by the Democrats, supported be 100% Democrat Counties and 100% Democrat areas and states. Democrat sheriffs and judges supported it.
My only comment is that using Whoopi (real name Caryn Elaine Johnson) as a source for anything is strictly a losing proposition. Her idiotic, as usual, comments, trivialized the slaughter of 6 million human beings.
Whoopi is a clown. Whoopi is short for "Whoopi cushion"; she was given that name because she passes gas a lot. Which is the best you can expect from her.
Haha. She actually chose that last name because her mother told her that a Jewish name would open doors for her in Hollywood. Not so anymore.
She ain't like any Goldberg I ever knew
Add to that today we have DNA analysis. Jews are DNA identifiable by various ‘markers’ through which many people have ‘rediscovered’ their Jewish ancestry.
Here’s a list of links to 11 DNA studies I put together on the subject:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02BCSMZ3b7ZE5q8tSmkU19eeoHqbuLkwNEZn5DqcRu5P2wSXZ73YuPwLLQoYHP1mhtl&id=100010354690131
I have read articles on the Future of Jewish website here which strongly assert Ashkenazi ancestry to the original Jews of Israel, from 3000 years ago. I said in reply to this that many Jews who identify as Ashkenazi do not have DNA markers (genotype) which are said to define Genetic Jewishness. Thus, we are indeed, multi-racial, of many Races but of one Faith. How so? Because many people converted into Judaism in our history, and retained their original genotype, and are as Jewish as you or I.
I appreciate what you’re saying here, particularly as someone from a very mixed family that was reminded of the fact that I am different than people with 4 Jewish grandparents. Unfortunately, however, what you’ve written is incorrect at basically every point. Jews are not a faith except according to 19th century bourgeoisie that adopted Christian-style language in order to appear more “civilized” to Europeans. And not that many people converted to Judaism, mainly because it was illegal to do so. There were so many Church and Secular laws—so many of them backed by terrible violence—forbidding Europeans not only from converting to Judaism, but from sitting with Jews, eating with Jews, doing business with Jews, being friends with Jews, playing music with Jews, having sex with Jews, and so on so forth.
So when you say that, “ …many Jews who identify as Ashkenazi do not have DNA markers … which are said to define Genetic Jewishness,” this is shockingly incorrect. Of all the Jewish groups you could have picked to say this about, you picked the one diasporic group that is extremely genetically funneled due to genetic isolation—again, Europeans made it illegal to convert to Judaism—and massacres that further funneled the gene pool. This is group is a monoform. With such an extremely homogenous population, the idea that “some” Ashkenazim would have markers of “Genetic Jewishness” but not nearly every single one is nonsensical. The only ‘Ashkenazim’ that don’t have markers of “Genetic Jewishness” are the few ethnic non-Jews that converted to Judaism in the 20th and 21st centuries, and who specifically adopted Ashkenazi Rite for davening. Otherwise, Ashkenazim appear nearly genetically identical to Western Sephardim—and Western Sephardim are genetically clearly derived from Ancient Israel.
I know that, traumatized by the Holocaust, there is this gut reflex need to disown the idea of being a monolithic people. It’s scary to be victims of racism, and so for many Jews in America, there is a tendency to run away from the reality of being a fairly homogenous ethnic group by boosting people like me that convert, or people with no Jewish ancestry that have converted. But people like us are an extreme minority; most Jews are actually ethnic Jews. And there’s nothing wrong with that; Judaism is not a Missionary “Faith”; we do not believe that non-Jews have to become Jews, we do not believe that they have to convert, and as a consequence of that, people largely do not convert to Judaism. The same could be said about any other ethnic ‘religion,’ to which people do not convert like Hinduism.
Like I said, as someone from a mixed background, and as someone that did a conversion process to affirm my Jewishness, I appreciate your attempt to say that people like me are “just as Jewish as [you],” but the lived reality of any convert is that in a (non-Synagogue) room of 100 Jews, if you are the convert, the other 99 people are born Jews unless you are in a very unusual community. And again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But this fear of the reality of Jewish homogeneity is just a post-Holocaust reflex. This doesn’t help Jews, and it certainly doesn’t help Judaism.
We justify everything about ourselves by our sense of lineage; open a siddur, and the davening is all about our relationship to our shared ancestors and to our collective homeland. But if you disregard shared ancestry, then the next step is to say, “Well we’re not really connected to the Land of Israel because we’re not actually Israelites, so I will stop saying brachos about HaShem restoring the Land and Jerusalem, etc.” So not only does what you’ve said not help us, it actually hurts us. This hurts Judaism because this is not how Ethnic-Religions work. Ethnic-Religions are ethnic, and Jews are an ethnicity—a fairly provably homogenous one.
Thank you for your principled and well argued reply. Certainly Ashkenazi Jews are homogenous. But when the ethnicity (of Jews ‘as a whole’) is discussed, there are Black Jews of Africa (The Falasha and the Zimbabwe Jews), The Jews of China who are East Asian, and the blond blue eyed Jews of Siberia. Non of these groups are or carry the markers distinct to either the Ashkenazim or the Sephardim. Certainly there is an Ethnic element to many Jews, and I accept this. But not all. Best wishes.
Most Ashkenazi Jews do have DNA markers of genetic Jewishness.
... But by no means all, Laura, Best wishes.
You make me wonder about the difference or non-difference between theology and ideology. Great piece, again. It is also fascinating to consider the obsession of one group of people with another group - jewhaters obsessing about Jews, many white men obsessing about blacks, one Christian sect obsessing about another or this Jew about that Jew, or Sunnis vs Shia vs wahhabi vs salafi etc. Maybe there are two kinds of people. People who see themselves as victims . . . pass the peanuts.
Whilst there are Jew haters that are obsessed with us, I also know a few non Jews who are obsessed that they were not born Jewish, as they love us so much. One or two friends I consider ‘honorary Jews’, as they have such ‘chine & humour’ that they could almost pass as Jewish.
I grew up going to a reform Sunday school because my parents had no idea what to do with their Jew (just can't come to use the word Jew-ish) minds and heritage. They didn't want to be religious but most of their friends were Jews. I grew up watching my friends go to church, playing soccer on their church teams. Wanted to go to church for a long time. Maybe be a priest. Had no respect for the 'rabbi' of the reform temple even as a 6yo. Then went to Israel and everything changed, except for still enjoying my nonJew friends and families.
We’ve all got ‘journeys’ behind us, some more interesting and challenging than others .. the key is playing the hand we have been dealt, the best way we can.
Me, too.
shias are the victims of sunnis, thats the shia idea
Excellent piece. I shuttered when I saw that the Nazis called Jews subhuman. I was fired as a prof at the U of Guelph for calling Hamas Nazis based on the complaint of two radical anti semites, one a prof, one a VP. What did the prof call Jews publicly? Subhuman.
My grandfather's 1926 naturalization certificate reads RACE: Hebrew
Glad I read the comments before looking at this Whoopie is another satanic evil who is antisemite keep your opinions to yourselves no one who’s to hear it. Well no one with a brain anyway
It's difficult to disagree with any of the points that you make.
The problem I see, the absolute illogic of the antisemites is the business whereby you refer to Jews being considered a 'threat to the white race'.
How many aggressive wars of conquest have been waged by Jews, either via the State of Israel or by any sub-national Jewish organisation?
How many airliners have Jewish terrorists hijacked?
How many suicide bombings have been conducted by Jewish extremists?
How many rockets / bombs / missiles have been directed randomly into civilian neighbourhoods by Jewish terrorist organisations?
In short, other than blatantly amateur KKK type propaganda, what serious evidence is there of such a thing?
Whereas, we have Islamic States whose leaders make speeches boasting that they shall scour Israel from the face of the earth with fire.
We have Islamist States referring to the West as the 'Great Satan' or the 'Little Satan'.
We have Islamic organisations whose very charters call for the obliteration of all things Jewish.
We have Islamic organisations openly saying - and reported as saying - that the objective of Islam is world domination.
And yet, and yet, the anti semitic hate marches continue. Hate Marches which openly call for the elimination of Israel. And somehow, somehow, Western governments tacitly and openly recognise the terrorists diplomatically and criticise Israel for defending itself.
To return to my opening point - how, in any sane world can Israel, can the Jews be considered a threat, particularly where other religious ideologies make no secret of their aggressive and violent objectives and daily demonstrate - via more & ongoing violence - their belief in such objectives?
To paraphrase a much maligned and misquoted speech:
“We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation . . . it is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.”
what is clear is that race as we think of it today was an invention of 19th century Europeans. Yet is has become central and religious to those who are Afro centric or any other group posing themselves as different from Europe. The ancient people noted differences but didn't think in terms of racial classifications. The Jewish people are an ethno-religious group....intra Jewish distinctions have now been blown out of proportion to be used against us....especially hating Jews from the European diaspora as "colonizers" of so called "brown" people though Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians may be fair skinned. Years ago at university my prof of mid east history told me when I questioned her about travel to Arab countries...."they'll just think you're Syrian,"
I see on Finding your Roots on PBS, the Black guests are thrilled to find out they are majority sub saharan African. When Jews are shown 100 per cent Ashkenazi Jewish, they sound more disappointed and resigned. David Dacovney....upon learning of his ancestors lost in the Holocaust....said he never thought of himself as Jewish. If Israel were still majority from E. Europe diaspora like myself , they'd still be there legitimately . But true enough....the anti Zionists have now conferred "Arabness" on the Jews they dispossessed or massacred even prior to Israel's independence and of course the massive dispossession and theft of property from Jews who pre date the Arab imperialist colonial settler invasion .... after '48.
This article is biased garbage.
So Christians are evil because of hatred of Jews. Hindus aren't mentioned and not once does the word Islam or Muslim appear. Are you kidding me? You seriously are telling us that Jews should not fear Muslims? Who the hell invaded Israel on October 7, 2023? Mennonites? Amish? Baptists? Methodists? Hindus? or Mormons?
Than there is this:
The Far-Right views Jews as an ominous threat to the White race. This can most demonstrably be seen in Nazi and neo-Nazi narratives, in addition to those of the Ku Klux Klan, White Aryan Resistance, Christian Identity Movement, and others.
Only someone utterly ignorant of American history would place the KKK on "The Right." The KKK was a 100% terrorist group manned by the Democrats, supported be 100% Democrat Counties and 100% Democrat areas and states. Democrat sheriffs and judges supported it.
It's not some combination thereof, it is all of the above
Beware of anyone who plays a race card