Yeah, it goes through your mother's side. :)

@Esmereina: Your avi is so cute!

Originally Posted by Readera

Yay! A jew freindly thread! I was wondering if you all could clear somehitng up for me. My dad is the Jewish one in my immediate family (it's all on his side) and we don't really go to chuch or temple. I go to church with my mom, mostly to humor her. But in the Jewish community am I concidered to be Jewish? Or if I converted, would it be called conversion, would I be a convert or a Jew returing to the fold?

Happy Passover everyone!

You ask a very heady question...From what I can tell, the answer depends on what sect you consider.

The orthodox would not consider you a Jew, but they hardly consider anyone who is not orthodox a Jew, so this is no big shock.

Most conservative Jews go by maternal religion, so if your mom was a Jew...you are. This is not an across the board, it depends on how "conservative" your group is. It seems to me that Jews on the east coast are more conservative than those on the west coast.

Most reform groups will say you are whatever you say you are, but again this will be congregation specific.

I am a "humanistic" Jew....and we pretty much say "If you say you are a Jew, then you are a Jew". From what I can tell, the only group who says they are Jews, who we do not consider Jewish, are the "Jews for Jesus". From what I can tell, they are considered Christians.

Of course, you can go through conversion with any sect...However it is a bit of a long drawn out process. One of the cool things about Judaism is that we don't try to convert people, and we really only want ya in our religion of you REALLY want to be there. There is a rule where a person who wants to convert has to be refused 3 times before they are even allowed to start the conversion process. Conversion often takes about a year to go through.

Sooooo, I hope that answers your question...Talk about long winded! HEHE:)

Originally Posted by DariaMorgendorfer

The orthodox would not consider you a Jew, but they hardly consider anyone who is not orthodox a Jew, so this is no big shock.

Wow, way to be harsh on us. Not all Orthodox people are that way. Just the super religious. There are several sects of Judaism within Orthodoxy. Modern Orthodoxy says anyone, like Conservatives, is Jewish as long as their mother is or they have converted. It really just depends on the Orthodox community. Although with the conversions, it depends on what type of conversion you have. I know that off the bat Orthodox and Conservative are fine but Reform and the other sects are more iffy.

So yea, that's just me butting in there.

Well sorry to have offended, I have been told by my very orthodox cousin that I am not a Jew on several occasions...Despite that both my parents are very conservative...So that was my frame of reference.

Thanks for all the information everyone. I had heard about the mother thing and I knew about the not really converting thing. Thanks again, but no fighting over it, please!

Hello fellow Jews!
:]

@Daria: Your cousin is a pigheaded ass :P
I'm pretty Orthodox and I'm friends with a lot of people who are Conservative and Reform. Yay for pluralistic summer programs!
Didn't mean to sound mean. I just hate generalities.

Hey Ogin!

Most people tend to hate or dislike generalities and fundamentalsists. And by Fundamentalists I mean people who beilve that the word of Insert relious here is the only way and their version is the only version and everyone else is going to hell.

I sat next to a fundamentalist on my flight to Israel!!!
He was a Christian going to tour places of importance to Jesus, on a plane filled with really religious Jews (I felt awkward wearing jeans while everyone else was wearing such modest clothes, lemme tell you...), and even though I told him I was Jewish, he talked to me for over an hour about how everyone other than people who believed in Jesus were going to hell.
Nice, people, really nice.
Judaism is great because it's not 'believe in God or die!!!' it's 'be a good person.' End of story. Happy day for all!
Well, except bad people...

@Easter Bunni... thank you... i love yours too.. its like Hawaiian Bunni..^^

@CK : ahhh... cougars prey on the youngins... hmm..well im married..but i tend to oogle at bishounen in St.Marx place alot... unbeknownst to them...lol :)

Originally Posted by Tamerthanthou

@Daria: Your cousin is a pigheaded ass :P
I'm pretty Orthodox and I'm friends with a lot of people who are Conservative and Reform. Yay for pluralistic summer programs!
Didn't mean to sound mean. I just hate generalities.

Hey Ogin!

HAHA! You'll never get me disagreeing with you about my cousin being a pigheaded ass! You definately NAILED that one on the head! I really meant no offense to you, he just preached at me how I was "Not" a Jew, blah blah.

It got worse when he preached at me for being a "Humanist" rather than orthodox and telling me how WRONG I was blah blah....My goal is to be a good person for the sake of being a good person...and the afterlife is something that will go however it goes ya know?! I just want to walk away from this life with as little regrets as possible and by being as good of a person as I can.

Here's to living the life of a mench!

You ought to try being orthodox and then told by your uber-orthodox cousins that you're not religious enough. Religion is just weird on any scale. You do what you can and that's it. I mean, if you go around saying your religion told you to go and rape little kids, well, that's an odd religion and you ought to go to jail but hey, if you're not harming anyone, who cares?

lol that's an interesting analogy Tamer...

I have to admit that I cheated and had some cake at my cousin's house tonite. They're not jewish so they had made an angel food cake for dessert.

Originally Posted by Easther_Bunni

lol that's an interesting analogy Tamer...

I have to admit that I cheated and had some cake at my cousin's house tonite. They're not jewish so they had made an angel food cake for dessert.

I love angel food cake...Was it worth the cheat? Cause it sounds it!

lol

It was pretty good, I must say. My cousin served it with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. :)

Happy Passover to you. (: I'm not Jewish, but my Jewish friends tell me that they hate Motzah. :P

Originally Posted by xnarnian

Happy Passover to you. (: I'm not Jewish, but my Jewish friends tell me that they hate Motzah. :P

I think if you only had to eat Matzoh at the seders, it wouldn't be hated...but living for it as your substitute for bread BLOWS! (in my personal opinion). It's like taking the only good part of crackers (the salt) taking it off, and leaving a tasteless gigantic cracker behind.

Now this is just my opinion...Maybe others love the Matzoh. Personally...BLEH!

For the first day of Passover, I'm always like "Yay! I miss matzah!" but then after a day or so I start hating it again. :P