Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Why are Jews classified as an ethnic group?
From the text My Austrian-Italian Ethnicity by Susan Carnicelli she shows the reader that at some point she was trying to tell people that she was an American, of Austrian-Italian descent, and of the Jewish religion. Right after she shows us that those people instantly classified her as a Italian Jew, when I saw this it reminded me of all the times I was hearing people make fun of some people online just because they were Jewish. The following sentence "Instead of seeing Judaism as a religion, many people falsely view it as a nationality." explains what I'm trying to get to. Why do most people ignore the fact that Judaism is a religion and not a race/ethnic group? I'd like to hear some opinions because I personally didn't know either, but why don't we know?
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Danny,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if "most" people ignore this... But if we look at what it means to be Jewish, it paints a very interesting perspective.
Let's look at the complicated situation that Jews face.
For one, to be Jewish (to follow Judiasm) is a relgion.
But the Jewish faith, some might say, is directly linked to the nation of Israel. And thus, perhaps, if one follows this train of thought, Jewish "can" mean Israeli. Which again, some might argue is a nationality. A nationality comprised of Jews whose ancestry spans the entire globe! (Is this confusing yet?)
I think one thing we have to see, or try to understand is that this is a question of self-identification. And thus, there is no "wrong" classification/identification--as long as it is the self defining the self.
Does this make sense?
Well, I had to read it twice to finally understand it but yes it makes sense, thank you for explaining it.
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