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I'd prefer to hear from other Jews on this discussion thread. But if you are not Jewish and wish to add comments, please identify yourself as not Jewish, ok? Thanks. :)

So here's my deal. One parent's heritage, cultural lineage, political struggles, and social experiences all go back to the Middle East/No. Africa, as "Jewish" via Eastern Europe. During that time period probably most in that cultural lineage were religious, practicing Judaism, the religion of Jewish folks who are religious AS Jewish folks. (Jewishness CAN refer to a religious affiliation, which explains why some non-Jews can "convert". But that's not the end of the story by a long-shot.)

My other side is white/Christian, so let's just leave that be for now! lol

My Jewish parent was secular, not religious. Not religious at all. Not an atheist either. Probably believed in G-d. We never talked about it, and this parent died before I turned 20. :(

I was not raised with any practice of Judaic religion. None. Nada. Zippo. The first synagogue I went to was for this parent's funeral, or maybe for an earlier relative's funeral. At funerals I wore a yarmulke.

We didn't celebrate Hanukkah and celebrated Christmas as "A Great U.S. Capitalist Holiday". I didn't know what part of the Xian calendar year the Jewish High Holy Days happened. I do now. But I don't celebrate them, except to wish folks Happy New Year, every fall.

So I grew up as a white Jew. One non-Jewish kid asked me "Which half of you is Jewish?" I think, at age nine, I told her "the left half" or I wish I did as that would be politically funnier, what with the leftist tradition among some Jews who came to the U.S. and created cooperative housing and markets in NYC. I did visit Jewish relatives who were religious. So I wasn't completely ignorant. I knew about matzoh, knew what gefilte fish tasted like--and was made of, and studied HaShoah when a teenager, reading the Diary of Anne Frank and sitting through a harrowing nine hour movie called "HaShoah". For the non-Jews out there, "HaShoah" is the preferred term for what is often not so accurately called "The Holocaust". That latter term is English. The former term is Hebrew.

My Jewish parent and his mom (who also raised me) spoke English and Yiddish, also called "Jewish".

"Jewish" can be a language, a religion, an ethnic identity--not ONE ethnic identity, btw, but MANY ethnic identities, it can be treated by some, such as the Nazis, as "a race", it is a cultural group--not ONE, but many. It is a cultural-political lineage (like Blackness).

Black Jews are called, in Hebrew: Mizrahim. Brown and Asian Jews are sometimes called (in Hebrew) Sephardic, but this varies cross-culturally. Typically, Sephardic Jews don't speak Yiddish, as do Ashkenazi (European but not from So. Europe) do. The Sephardim have a language that combines Spanish and Hebrew. Yiddish is mostly German and Hebrew in origin. Sephardim are often called "Spanish Jews" which is misleading.

Ok, discuss... ;