Is Judaism a religion or a race ?

I''m not trying to come off wrong but even my Jewish friends can't even give me a direct answer .. This Woopie Goldberg crap got me thinking .
See I married a Jewish girl once and had a daughter and she does practice Judaism along with other new age religions "Dibbuk box kind of stuff" . I've worked with and my paycheck paid for by Jewish friends .

It doesn't matter either way I love my friends and family .

This is meant for discussion I love my peeps . Through out the years Jewish people have had the short end of the stick so to say why have they been subject to so much hatred as a race religion or people ?

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Judaism is a religion, Being Jewish long ago was a nationality for the nation of Judah /Judea when the Israelite's split into two nations and the Romans renamed the whole area the latter of the two.

Nothing to do with race, the Israelite's were Semitic just like most people of the Levant are.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Not being snarky, just frank and factual.

It's going to depend on whom you ask; and that would include people who identify as Jewish.

Some will see it a a religion that anyone can convert to. Some will claim it as an ethnic group. Some might even say that it's a culture.

I do not concur with the evangelicals who have been conned into believing that anything "Jewish" somehow is holy and good. I do not believe that the socio-political entity that it called Israel has anything to do with the descendants of Abraham.

I think it used to be a race thing some point long ago, with the tribes in the land of Canaan an what not. Then it ended up being voluntary, but is still a religion ether way.

In my opinion,this is like asking "Is Islam a religion or political system?" The answer to both questions is; Yes. There are times when specific things strongly lean to race or religion but taken as a whole, they are inseparable.

I think it's both. Judaism is a religion one can convert to, but there is also the Jewish people descendants of the 10 tribes of Israel.

The other thing, and I assume this is referring back to Whoopi Goldberg's ignorance, is that during the Holocaust, the Nazis certainly did treat the Jews as a race apart. They viewed them as subhuman. In order to perpetrate the atrocities that were done to them, they had to be dehumanized and the racializing was part of this effort. If you look at the media of certain Middle Eastern nations even today, you will see the same thing taking place.

Anytime we talk about large scale human atrocity, you will find an effort to dehumanize/otherwise the group that ends up getting whacked by the aggressor. You saw it in Rwanda, and I'd be interested to hear how Whoopi talks about that one ... if it's just "two groups of black people killing each other". Somehow, I'm betting not, and her whole characterization of the Holocaust opens a door into her own mindset on race and how she thinks of groups outside her own.

So I have a question too and I'm in the camp of Israel has a right to exist but the Zionism thing seems a wrong turn.

What's the truth about the Khazar assertions? I believe that alleges to address racial identity?

It seems confusing.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I am not, but is not Hebrew..the race? Judaism, the belief?

a reply to: The GUT

Again, this goes back to Jews being both. I think with the Khazar thing, the assertion is that there are no more proper Semitic descended Jews so that the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland is a lie because the only ones left are converts and descended from other races.

My personal feelings are that there were indeed a historic group of tribes that originated Judaism that lived in the region of Israel and had a kingdom there, and no other people in the world has demonstrated a historic willingness to treat Jews of any extraction with any decency for any length of time. So where else should they go?

a reply to: ketsuko

I agree but were the Jewish people just nomads and just settled in - Sorry its very confusing even when you look up the history I cant understand how history labels Jews unless they are a race but why no homeland in the 1st place ?

"I'm trying to dance around and not be offensive because of my ignorance"

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Well it could be both but it wouldn't be the same word. One is a religion the other would use that word to refer to a cultural group of Mediterranean middle easterners. Those practicing the religion have nothing to do with race as the people who founded the religion already had a race...you cant just make up a new race. Not to mention people traveled and lived in different places than they came from then just as we do now so those involved would have probably been of many races. Now a days to me it accurately refers to a religion or practitioners of that religion. The people of which are as diverse as any other place on earth.

a reply to: BernnieJGato

Thanks semetic was the word I was looking for and spaced. But even then just like now most places...especially important places and port cities had people from all over living there.

a reply to: Jason79

As the other poster above us mentions their race would be Semitic as that's who lived in that region. The religion came after the people who created it...it wasn't just one race who it describes it was a practice that might have had a majority following of one race but they art the jewish race they are Semitic. Im sure there were arab jews too as well as others practicing who lived in the region.

The same people who are naive to believe caucasians
transverses northern Africa for 400 years as depicted
in the Bible are possibly the same mindset that
took the jab. Stop the BS lies, as those who claim
heritage in that area have no affinity to Arabs.

The Balfour Declaration does not grant heritage.

a reply to: RickyD

Yes, and no. Some religious traditions actually do pass down familiarly. In the case of Islam, you are considered Muslim if your father was and if you turn away from it, you could be called an apostate in some countries.

Similarly, Judaism passes through the maternal line although I don't think the apostasy laws are the same.

As a Christian, you really aren't fully considered a Christian until you consciously choose to follow the faith personally even if your family is Christian and raises you to the faith. You still have to make a personal choice to follow it at some point in your life.

a reply to: ketsuko

People can not say anything to change the genetics of a human. I can say my great great great whatever called me a this because for as far as my family knows that's what we are...but it doesnt change genetics. It can be a religion and a nationality all day as people can effect that...but we can't turn a Caucasian into a Semitic.

a reply to: RickyD

An argument could be made that the way travel has opened the world up, that there are no true races today, But that doesn't stop people from identifying with certain groups and developing/adopting the groups culture.

a reply to: RickyD

Is that why you do the genetics tests and discover interesting things like a decent percentage of your DNA might be from Sub-Saharan Africa even thought you're lily white?

Just because you look a certain way doesn't mean your genes are all from that same background. Most of us are packing more ethnicities than we think.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

The simple answer is: Judaism is a religion of identity.

A Jew is a person identified as, and accepted by, Jews as being Jewish. The easiest way to be accepted as such is if one's mother is accepted as Jewish. It really helps if her mother is also among the Jewish.

Jews may run the full spectrum of beliefs about the gods, from full atheist to full polytheist, doesn't matter. As long as other Jews accept them as Jewish it's all cool.

In times past, when numbers were few, conversion was encouraged and facilitated. Other times not so much; many hurdles and obstacles.

As for the Woopie Goldberg matter: She's American and not European. The U.S. never had a history of official Jewish disability (no citizenship, no property ownership) such as Europe did from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) until well into the 1700s (1800s in some countries).

So when the word emancipation is heard by Americans, they think of freeing slaves and allowing them to be full citizens of the U.S. When Europeans hear emancipation, they may very well think of the Jewish Emancipation.

Wikipedia has a very good write-up: Jewish Emancipation