{"id":9911,"date":"2023-02-23T08:58:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2023-02-23T08:58:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:58:13","slug":"column-magali-1-judaism-race-or-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/column-magali-1-judaism-race-or-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Judaism \u2013 a race, a religion, a nation, or an identity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m a twenty-something Jewish woman. What that means exactly\u2026 I\u2019m not all too sure. My daily life doesn\u2019t only revolve around Judaism, even though it plays a significant part. This phenomenon is difficult to explain to outsiders. Because what exactly is a Jew? What does a Jewish person look like? What makes someone more Jewish than others? Who are the real Jews?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Judaism<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rabbis can endlessly discuss what that one word in the Talmud <\/a>means. And likewise, Jews sitting at a shabbat table can kibble for hours about what it means to be Jewish. Because there is no right or wrong answer. We come from various places in the world that are sometimes miles apart, speak different languages, our traditions don\u2019t always align and there are various degrees of religiousness \u2013 orthodox to traditional to liberal secular. So, no simple answer there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, I did one of those DNA tests and found out that I\u2019m 90.8% Ashkenazi Jewish. That\u2019s not something strangers would necessarily guess. They usually think I\u2019m Spanish, Russian, French, or even Greek. Because what does a Jewish person look like? There\u2019s no clear-cut answer to that question. Dark curls, brown eyes, and a stereotypical Jewish nose? Why does one of my cousins, who is just as Ashkenazi as myself, have blond hair and blue eyes? And even when looking at Russian or Ethiopian Jews, they don\u2019t tend to look the same either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I was thirteen years old, I used to go to a Karate Dojo. A girl I met there once asked if I go back home a lot. \u201cBack home?\u201d I answered confusedly. \u201cYes, to Israel,\u201d she said. I found this to be a strange comment. My parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents have all been born and raised in various European countries. The Israel that was founded in 1948 is not my real home (though it does feel like a familiar place). It\u2019s not because you\u2019re Jewish that you were born in Israel, and It\u2019s not because you were born in Israel that you\u2019re necessarily Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, I wouldn\u2019t call it a nation, race, or a religion either \u2013 many Jews tend to drive on Shabbat. Perhaps identity is the right word. But someone who doesn\u2019t necessarily identify with their Jewish side, can still be seen as a Jew by others. However, something that has strengthened that identity over centuries is the fact that our people have always been persecuted. This means that we stick together, in good or bad times. It\u2019s a safety net where you can always fall back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, I believe that Judaism is a family. Like in a family we are just as similar as we are different, we often love each other dearly but sometimes we can\u2019t stand one another. They always say that you don\u2019t choose your family \u2013 for better or for worse. And it\u2019s only normal to get annoyed by your neurotic uncle or chatty grandmother at the dinner table. It\u2019s just a part of it. An unconventional way of bringing together a group of people that don\u2019t necessarily have much in common. But what we do share is a special feeling of togetherness<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is Judaism – a race, religion, nation or and identity? Magali J. contemplates in this column her thoughts about the subject. Enjoy the read!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"","site-content-layout":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[30,45,55,71],"auteur":[241],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9921,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/9921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"auteur","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chabadoncampus.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteur?post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}