Are the Jewish people a religion, race, or nationality?

Originally posted by Donnie Darko

Race is a real thing to some extent, for example you can't transplant a white person's kidney into a black person,

Wait... Are you serious? Last I heard all organs were interchangeable regardless of race. I mean I understand sickle cell only goes for darker tones...black and to a lesser extent Mediterranean/Arabic But it was my understanding that you can still transplant blood kidneys or any other organ...

How is race a factor with organ transplant?

reply to post by Donnie Darko


In some areas where they are the minority and the religion is limited to certain tribes it can be classified as such but in general, no.

With world travel and immigration being more wide spread than ever the lines are becoming more muddled. However, in history, religion was often decided and divided by location and ancestry. So in a sense, it may seem a lot of religions are but in reality they are not. For instance the term 'Irish Catholic' but it's still not classified as such.

As for the people you know who left the faith but still identify with it, it's possible due to their baptism into the religion? That's something you'll need to answer because I personally do not know of any people who left a religion but still classify themselves with the group.

Jewish scholars can't agree on these things so don't expect to come to any conclusions on ATS.

an old post of mine
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Originally posted by Donnie Darko

Originally posted by calihan_12

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
I'm curious to find out the ethnicity of my dad's dad. His last name was Miller, which makes me think he's probably English ... but it's also a Jewish surname. I look slightly Middle Eastern but that's probably just because most Europeans have a trace of Middle Eastern ancestry due to migration.

[edit on 24-9-2009 by Donnie Darko]

hmm yeah you may or may not be of middle eastern descent. do you know if any of your ancestors were jewish?

now that i am really thinking about it, i think i look more greek, as does my brother. he looks extremely greek.

i don't. my dad never knew his dad, and i've never met him either. my dad has really pale skin but dark/Mediterranean features. He looks Basque/Spanish of anything actually.

Is your avatar you? If it is, you do look Greek. You're quite attractive too btw.

Like I said though, Israel and Greece are close together, and have a similar climate, so that could be why, or it's also possible you're descended from Greek Jews.

yes that is me, thank you

but you should see my brother. he looks 100 percent greek. thats why i was always curious because my dad looks a little more middle eastern, and my other brother has my moms english features, but based on my brother and i, i think greece might just be where my dads family was from. cant be sure though of course. ill prob never know.

how come your dad never knew his dad? have you asked your grandma at all about him?

Originally posted by titorite

Originally posted by Donnie Darko

Race is a real thing to some extent, for example you can't transplant a white person's kidney into a black person,

Wait... Are you serious? Last I heard all organs were interchangeable regardless of race. I mean I understand sickle cell only goes for darker tones...black and to a lesser extent Mediterranean/Arabic But it was my understanding that you can still transplant blood kidneys or any other organ...

How is race a factor with organ transplant?

Hmmm. I could be wrong?

Originally posted by calihan_12


how come your dad never knew his dad? have you asked your grandma at all about him?

I think my grandma wasn't interested in him raising my dad. I'm not sure he even knew he had a son!

aww thats pretty sad.

the whole pale skin/dark features makes me think he may be of spanish or italian descent. im not sure mediterranean, but you never know!

my dad has extremely dark skin but blonde hair and blue eyes so its kinda the opposite haha.

reply to post by Donnie Darko


Judaism is a religion. As it's been said, anyone can become a Jew, if they convert to Judaism. Jew, I suppose, also is interchangeable with those that are from modern day Israel, the Jewish state. In that case, Jew could be used for nationality as well.

However, Jew isn't a race. Hebrew would be the race of people from which the Judaic religion came from. Judaism was the religion of the Hebrew people. So, not all people that are Jewish today, due to conversions, are Hebrews.

Originally posted by calihan_12
aww thats pretty sad.

the whole pale skin/dark features makes me think he may be of spanish or italian descent. im not sure mediterranean, but you never know!

my dad has extremely dark skin but blonde hair and blue eyes so its kinda the opposite haha.

the rest of my ancestry is English/Irish/Welsh too, and word is scientists found out they actually originated from Spain! Which makes sense, because English and Irish people look darker than continental northern Europeans.

is it common for people of British/Irish ancestry to have jet black hair? My dad and brother's hair is almost pure black.

The dark skin and blue eyes seems like a Greek thing too. I think it's because the founders of the Greek culture originated from the Ukraine/southern Russia and were of lighter complexion than the people native to Greece they conquered, and modern Greeks are a mix of them.

It's a tribe. The tribe of Judah.

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by cloakndagger
It's a tribe. The tribe of Judah.

en.wikipedia.org...

Isn't that just the leading tribe though?

Originally posted by Donnie Darko

Originally posted by calihan_12
aww thats pretty sad.

the whole pale skin/dark features makes me think he may be of spanish or italian descent. im not sure mediterranean, but you never know!

my dad has extremely dark skin but blonde hair and blue eyes so its kinda the opposite haha.

the rest of my ancestry is English/Irish/Welsh too, and word is scientists found out they actually originated from Spain! Which makes sense, because English and Irish people look darker than continental northern Europeans.

is it common for people of British/Irish ancestry to have jet black hair? My dad and brother's hair is almost pure black.

The dark skin and blue eyes seems like a Greek thing too. I think it's because the founders of the Greek culture originated from the Ukraine/southern Russia and were of lighter complexion than the people native to Greece they conquered, and modern Greeks are a mix of them.

i believe it is very common for british and irish to have dark hair. my hald brother has the same mom and different dad, both parents of english descent, and hes got JET black hair but pale skin and blue eyes.

reply to post by Donnie Darko

I'm curious to find out the ethnicity of my dad's dad. His last name was Miller, which makes me think he's probably English

He could actually be of German ancestry. Miller is the English equivalent of the German name Müller. It very well could be that your dad or his ancestors moved to an English speaking country and "changed" his last name to Miller to better fit in. Or, if your dad's ancestors came through Ellis Island or something of the like, when they gave their last name at registration, the person registering them may have spoken German and took it upon themselves to change their name to Miller whe nthey heard Müller.

Originally posted by calihan_12

i believe it is very common for british and irish to have dark hair. my hald brother has the same mom and different dad, both parents of english descent, and hes got JET black hair but pale skin and blue eyes.

What's interesting, and I could be wrong, is how come the only people who don't have brown/black hair come from Europe?

reply to post by Donnie Darko

Isn't that just the leading tribe though?

Yes, Judah was the largest tribe in ancient Israel. It also was the name of the Kingdom of Judah, when the United Kingdom divided.

At some point, Jew was used in reference to this groups people. It simply means something like "of Judah". The first usage of "Jew" in the Bible is in 2 Kings 25.25:

But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

Judaism is the "religion of Judah". And over time, it just stuck to refer to Israel in general.

reply to post by Donnie Darko

What's interesting, and I could be wrong, is how come the only people who don't have brown/black hair come from Europe?

As I remember, it's from the Scandinavian countries in particular. The reason probably being that the sun doesn't strike up there as much as in other parts of the world. So, over the course of time whatever it is that makes hair darker would've become a more recessive trait genetically.

[edit on 9/24/2009 by octotom]

Originally posted by octotom
reply to post by Donnie Darko

 

What's interesting, and I could be wrong, is how come the only people who don't have brown/black hair come from Europe?

As I remember, it's from the Scandinavian countries in particular. The reason probably being that the sun doesn't strike up there as much as in other parts of the world. So, over the course of time whatever it is that makes hair darker would've become a more recessive trait genetically.

[edit on 9/24/2009 by octotom]

The Eskimos don't have blonde hair though.

reply to post by Donnie Darko

The Eskimos don't have blonde hair though.

This is true. I forgot about them.

reply to post by octotom


How can hebrews be a race exactly?

Two lines to appease the mods.

its a religion and i guess a form of lifestyle that goes with it.