My son, the Christian?!
CHAPTER 7: So, nu! who's a Jew?
So, as the
title states, who exactly is a Jew? And who isn't one? At a time of
unprecedented mixing between the races we find ourselves in a society
inhabited by folk of all hues and mixtures of traditions. My own children
have the culturally confused heritage of English secular Judaism mixed
with Polish Catholicism. My wife comes from a German/Polish background;
her German mother is an Atheist and Polish father a Catholic. What does
that make our children? According to one definition they are not Jewish by
birth, but another tradition would make them as Jewish as they wish to be
and yet another tradition, the Nazi one, albeit for the wrong purposes,
would make them Jewish on account of their grandparents' background and
nothing else. If you go to Israel and expect to see a nation of olive skin
and brown eyes you'll be surprised at the blond hair and blue eyes you'll
see, even in that bastion of national identity, the Israeli Army. These
days, contrary to the belief of some, you can't measure your Jewishness by
the size of your nose. Mind you I am reminded of a true story of a friend,
a Gentile, who only discovered when he was in his twenties that his father
was Jewish. His first words at this discovery were, 'Ah, so that
explains the nose!'. This story aside, we need a better way of
defining Jewishness, which brings us back to our original question, 'Who
is a Jew?'.
A. Back to the Bible
Let's first
go back to origins. One thing that everyone agrees on is that all Jews can
trace their origins back to the Patriarch, Abraham, about 4000 years ago.
I bet you didn't know that he came from a family of Iraqi idol-worshippers
- though, of course, the country wasn't called Iraq in those days. He came
from a city called Ur in the region known as Mesopotamia. Ur is one of the
oldest recorded cities and its ruins are still visible today, though
you'll need to travel to the edge of the al-Hajar Desert in Iraq to see
it. Abraham, then known as Abram, according to the Bible, had a divine
calling and left his home city and moved to the area of Canaan, now modern
day Israel. Abram was the first man to be called a Hebrew, a name coming
from Eber, his ancestor and a descendant of Shem (from whom we get the
name 'Semite', a term usually used for anyone of Middle-Eastern origin,
and 'anti-Semitic', a term curiously only used in relation to Jews), who,
in turn, was a son of Noah. Shem, who spent all that time in the Ark with
Noah and his family, was still living at the time of Abram. Mind you, he
was 465 years old at that time and probably the oldest man alive. What
conversations they could have had together!
So God called Abram and, because Abram responded in the right way, even
so far as being willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, he was
granted certain promises. He was granted, on behalf of his descendants,
the title deeds to not only the land he now lived in but to a much larger
area (more about that later). As mentioned earlier, his name was changed
from Abram to Abraham, which means 'father of many'. This title
makes sense now as Abraham is revered not only by Jews, but also by Arabs,
who also trace their origins back to him, through his son Ishmael.
Christians also see him as a sort of 'spiritual' father, and he is spoken
about in glowing terms at various places in the New Testament
But there is no such thing as a free lunch! Much squealing must have been
heard in camp on the day Abraham and his son were circumcised. They didn't
have the benefit of anaesthetic or the trusting nature of an 8-day-old
baby! Abraham was 99 years old when he was snipped. And no men in his
household escaped from this ordeal, even foreign servants. They were all
put to the blade. You see, Abraham and his descendants had to visibly show
their acceptance of these promises by God, and, through the rite of
circumcision, we had a physical reminder of this 'covenant' between God
and his people. And this rite has continued through the ages to modern
times, for all Jews, whether religious or 'traditional Jews'. Of course
circumcision has now broadened its appeal, whether out of health (possible
prevention of cancer) or fashion (e.g. English upper classes), but the
Jews had it first! Although for many Jews it has become just one facet of
the various rituals that have come to us as 'Jewish traditions', one must
not forget that its origins are very much religious origins.
Abraham had two sons. The first was Ishmael, the 'forefather' of today's
Arabs. God told Abraham that Ishmael was to be a wild donkey of a man who
would live in hostility with all his brothers, a fairly accurate
prediction when we consider that the second son was to be the 'forefather'
of the Jewish nation. This man was Isaac, who's name means 'he laughs'.
You may say that he had little to laugh about in his early years, having
been almost frazzled on Abraham's altar as a burnt offering. But things
got better. He got to marry Rebekah, who was very beautiful and a distant
relative. He also had twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau became the manly
one, the older and the stronger, a hunter by profession. Jacob, the
younger by a few minutes, was the weak girlie one. He was quiet and
preferred to hang around at camp. He was mummy's little favourite! Today
he would be the accountant or estate agent (no offence intended!). He was
such a weed that he was betrothed to the beautiful daughter but was
tricked into marrying the ugly daughter and only found out in the morning,
presumably because he was so drunk the night before to notice! Now, with
Woody Allen in mind, rather than Kirk Douglas, which one became the
ancestor of the Jewish people? Why, Jacob of course. To get the full story
you'll need to read the Bible, but needless to say Jacob lived up to the
popular (but incorrect) translation of his name (according to the NIV
Bible 'Jacob' figuratively means 'he deceives' although it actually means
'heel grabber') and cheated Esau out of his inheritance as the first-born.
But Jacob was still the chosen one of God and even had a wrestling match
with him! Could this be the same man whose second wife hired him out to
his first wife for a night of passion in return for a bunch of vegetables?
Yes, it was, and we can only presume that his life of hardship
strengthened him mentally and physically. Jacob survived the bout with the
Almighty (three rounds, one submission) resulting in, for him, a new name.
His name was now Israel, which means 'He struggles with God'. This
is the origin of the name, Israel, and, as we'll see later, this new name
was to be very apt.
The Jewish people have, at certain times, been known as the 'Children
of Israel'. We can look at this literally and we discover that Jacob
(or 'Israel') had twelve sons. The ten boring ones were Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin. The two
interesting sons were Joseph and Judah. Joseph is interesting not only
because Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical about him but because his
story is so extensively documented in the pages of the Bible. It is also a
great story (why do you think a musical was made about it?). Judah was the
fourth son of Jacob and it is from his name that we get the name, Jew.
Just as Jacob received the blessing that rightly belonged to his elder
brother, Esau, here we see Judah leapfrogging over three elder brothers.
Reuben, the eldest, forfeited his blessing by sleeping with his
stepmother. The other two, Simeon and Levi, had too violent a nature (
they slaughtered all the men in a city in vengeance for the rape of their
sister) to be trusted with a divine mandate.
So, that's where the word Jew comes from, like it or not. Jewish origins
are religious in their nature, all early Jewish history comes from the
pages of the Bible. Jewish history started with these men, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob and Judah and as time passed, beliefs, attitudes and traditions were
handed down and built upon. By this means a Jewish identity was
strengthened and a sense of 'Jewishness' was the binding force that kept
this people separate. Every man knew who he was and where he came from.
Genealogies, or family histories, were kept, tracing one's ancestors
through the male line (i.e. Solly begat Hymie who begat Moishe and so on),
the understanding was that you were only Jewish if you had a Jewish
father. These genealogies were meticulously recorded and stored. One
reason was because the Messiah of Israel, when he was to come, would need
to have an impeccable pedigree and there would need to be proof of his
royal lineage.
Of course people then ( as now) were allowed to convert and join the
Jewish community with full rights, the only provision being circumcision
for the men. These people were known as proselytes and have always been
welcomed with open arms by the Jewish community.
B. When is a
Jew a Jew?
Since those
times until recently, Jews have been a people without a land, a people in
exile. They lived then, as most Jews today do (unless they are living in
Israel), in the Diaspora, which means 'dispersion'. Although the Biblical
tradition states that 'Jewishness' comes through the male line (which is
why the genealogies, apart from the odd exception, only showed the men),
the rabbis stated that, to be a true Jew you need, as a minimum
requirement, a 'Yiddishe Momma' (a 'Jewish mother' for those
unfamiliar with the subtle nuances of Yiddish). This deviation was brought
about through practical reasoning. During times of extreme persecution,
the identity of one's father was sometimes doubtful and, even when the
father was known, one didn't particularly want one's child brought up as a
Russian Orthodox or as a Cossack. You always knew who your mother was and,
even if you had the blond hair and blue eyes of an unknown father, you
would still be brought up under the protection of the Jewish community as
one of their own. Of course intermarriage has also occurred on a voluntary
basis and explains why Jews from a given country, such as Germany, France
or Ethiopia, in many cases look just like Gentiles from the same country.
When the Ethiopian airlift arrived in Israel at the time of the African
famines, many a voice was heard to exclaim, "But they're
schwartzers!", only to be answered, "Yet heimische
schwartzers, nu?". Roughly translated into the Queen's English
this becomes, "I say, these chappies are coloured chappies!",
followed by, "Oh yes, my good man, but they're one of us!".
Others have become Jews through marriage (e.g. Elizabeth Taylor - though
I think her synagogue attendance has dropped off a little in her later
years) or preference (e.g. Sammy Davis Jnr ). To become a Jew a non-Jew
has to undergo some formal study. In the orthodox tradition a man still
has to undergo circumcision and a woman has to learn how to make a good
chicken soup (I think, though I may be wrong). It's a lot easier in the
reform tradition, which just goes for the basic studying and a formal
declaration. If this is all in the context of a marriage, it is sometimes
referred to as a 'mitzvah marriage', defining it as a mitzvah or a 'good
works', by adding to the household of Israel.
It's not so straightforward to stop being a Jew. Of course you can simply
deny your background and not tell anyone. This is quite easy to do if you
move solely in Gentile circles, though your racial characteristics, to say
nothing of ritual scars, may prove a bit of a give-away! But this is
becoming more and more common, and is something that I have lapsed into at
times in my life. Sometimes, particularly when you're going through a time
of personal rebellion, you say to yourself, 'I'm an individual, I don't
want to be labelled'. You don't want the cultural baggage of a 'different
tradition', particularly one that, as a rule, is looked down upon by your
peers. I know of at least three cases in my family alone when first names
or surnames have been changed to hide one's Jewish identity. Many
entertainers, particularly those from immigrant families, have changed
their names in order to further their career. It is doubtful if Sid James
(of 'Carry-on' fame) would have been so endearing to the British public if
he had kept his name - Solly Cohen! The Board of Deputies of British Jews,
the governing body of Jews in this country, have highlighted assimilation,
where for one reason or another Jewishness is lost, as the biggest threat
to the Jewish community today. It has been estimated that now, in America,
about half of Jewish marriages involve a non-Jewish partner, with less
than a fifth of the Gentile partners converting to Judaism! This is an
unprecedented situation and could be seen, at worst, as a form of national
suicide on the part of the Jews of the Diaspora. At this rate surely Jews
outside Israel could end up as a marginalised minority community, with
little or no influence on society.
During the nineteenth century there were many cases of Jews becoming
Christians, in name only, in order to further their career in society at
large, usually in the realm of politics. An example of this was Benjamin
Disraeli, the English prime minister and Karl Marx, the philosopher, who
were both, in fact, brought up as 'Christians' by Jewish parents. In
earlier times, during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, some Jews in
Spain and Portugal, as an alternative to death, accepted a form of
conversion to Christianity, though still preserving Jewish traditions in
private. They were known as Marranos, which meant 'swine', giving you an
idea of the high esteem they were held in! In the Talmud, one of the books
of Jewish tradition, it says that 'an Israelite, even though he sin,
remains an Israelite'. This basically means, once born a Jew, you
remain one, whatever mischief you've been up to and whether you like it or
not.
Many books have been written exploring the issue of Jewishness and trying
to define whether a Jew belongs to a nation, a race, a tradition, a
religion or a state of mind. I don't wish to add any more to this
discussion except to mention one interesting fact, which is now explored
...
C. When is a
Jew not a Jew?
The best test
you can have of your 'Jewishness' is to see if the State of Israel would
grant you citizenship. In 1948 the Knesset, the parliament of Israel,
formulated the 'Law of Return'. This states that any Jew can
receive Israeli citizenship the moment he or she sets foot on Israeli
soil. It doesn't matter if you do or don't believe in God or the Bible, or
whether you're a communist, an astrologer, or even a convert to Hinduism -
as long as you've got the papers to prove you're a Jew, you're welcome.
There is only one group of people who are definitely not welcome and they
are Jewish Christians, or Messianic Jews. In fact, at the time of writing,
Israel's Parliament (the Knesset) is now considering a law which would
make it illegal to distribute leaflets or information that could
'persuade' another to change their religious views - there's no doubt
which religion is in mind here, and who are being targetted! I'm not
banging a drum here, I'm only stating facts. It's OK if you have no belief
in God, or believe that God is another name for Nature or even believe
that God has three heads and a tail! All of these are acceptable, Israel
will welcome you with open arms. But if you believe that the Jewish
Messiah has come and his name was Jesus Christ (actually Yeshua Ha
Mashiach was his proper Jewish name), then, in the eyes of the Jewish
establishment you have 'lost your Jewishness'. You have become the
enemy, or, in the eyes of the orthodox, you've died and, if you come from
an orthodox family, a funeral will be conducted for you!
These are strong reactions indeed. You can be a mass murderer or a
compulsive adulterer, but you can still be Jewish and will be allowed your
very own place in the State of Israel - albeit in a maximum security
prison. But in the eyes of a State that claims, as a whole, not to even be
religious, your Jewishness can be stripped away like the skin off a
banana, simply by believing in something they disagree with. Now take one
step back and with a clear, rational mind just consider for a moment what
you've just read. Why should one's beliefs provoke such a reaction? Is it
rational, or is there something going on here that needs further
investigation? I personally believe the latter.
D. There's
something special about these folk
Now speaking
as an ex-Jew (according to the argument above!), I am extremely proud of
the achievements of my people and conclude that there is definitely
something special about these folk. Now there are about 12.5 million Jews
world-wide (1995 figures), out of World population of 5,300 million. This
means that about 0.25% of the world is Jewish; about 1 person out of every
400 eats gefilte fish and reads the Jewish Chronicle (This is probably a
bit of a generalisation as not even most English Jews read the J.C. and
some of us actually hate fish!). So one would naturally expect that 0.25%
of the worlds' scientists, musicians, entertainers, writers etc. etc.
would, on average, be Jewish. Well, it hasn't worked out like that,
something has gone wrong in our calculations, our decimal point has gone
haywire! Just looking in the period since the mid nineteenth century we
find that about 25% of the world's scientists have been Jews. That's a
full one hundred times too many! It has been estimated also that, in 1978,
over half the Nobel Prize winners were Jewish. Over 50% of the main
contributors to the progress of mankind that year coming from 0.25% of the
population! The mind boggles.
(i) Jews who have shaped our lives - the facts
Here is a partial list of people of Jewish ancestry who have 'made it' in
the world at large in the last couple of hundred years, rather than just
being known in Jewish circles.
WRITERS
Elie Wiesel , Isaac Bashevis Singer , Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, Arthur
Miller, Harold Pinter, Jack Rosenthal, Philip Roth, Leon Uris, Nora
Ephron, Erica Jong, Harold Robbins, Hugh Schonfield, Neil Simon, Norman
Mailer.
ACTORS, ENTERTAINERS AND PERSONALITIES
Edward G Robinson, John Garfield, Lee J Cobb, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis,
Robin Williams, Melvyn Douglas, Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss, Walter
Matthau, Lawrence Harvey, Winona Ryder, Gene Wilder , Maureen Lipman,
Dustin Hoffman, Richard Benjamin, Elliot Gould, Michael Douglas, Anouk
Aimee, Sarah Bernhardt, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Barbra Streisand, Alma
Cogan, Helen Shapiro, Milton Berle, George Burns, Danny Kaye, Lenny Bruce,
The Marx Brothers, Bud Flanagan, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, Harrison Ford,
Mel Brooks, Sophie Tucker, Dinah Shore, Eddie Fisher, Carole King, Neil
Sedaka, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Topol, Billy Crystal, Marty Feldman,
Jerry Lewis, Sid James, Jack Benny, Frankie Vaughan, Bob Dylan, Elkie
Brookes, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Harry Houdini, Howard Werth, Peter
Green, Paul Kossoff, Paula Abdul, Jackie Mason, Theda Bara, Fanny Brice,
Bernard Bresslaw, Bernie Winters, Alexie Sayle, Ben Elton, Joan Rivers,
Lionel Blair, Marjorie Proops, Claire Rayner, Uri Geller, Ruby Wax, Dani
Behr, Tania Bryer, Muriel Gray, Ron Moody, Warren Mitchell, David Baddiel,
Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock), William Shatner (Captn Kirk),
Saatchi & Saatchi, David Copperfield, David Suchet, John Suchet, Lou
Reed, Mark Knopfler, Goldie Hawn, Vanessa Feltz, Stephen Fry, Debra
Winger, Vidal Sassoon, Linda McCartney, Marc Bolan, David Schneider, John
Bluthal, Miriam Karlin, Miriam Margolyes, Janet Suzman, David Kossof.
PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS
The Warner Brothers, WIlliam Fox, Louis B Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis
Selznick, Adolph Zukor, Jack and Harry Cohn, Jesse Lasky, Lew Grade, Lord
Delfont, Steven Spielberg, Sam Wannamaker, Michael Winner, David O
Selznick, Joseph Mankiewicz, Alexander Korda, Billy WIlder, Roman
Polanski.
POLITICS
Benjamin Disraeli , Sir Herbert Samuel , Anatoly Scharansky , Leslie
Hore-Belisha , Manny Shinwell , Leon Blum, Leon Brittain, Lord Young,
Nigel Lawson, Gerald Kaufmann, Malcolm Rifkind, Michael Howard, Greville
Janner, Edwina Currie.
ECONOMICS
Milton Friedman , The Rothschilds, The Montefiores, The Samuels, the
Sassoons, The Montefiores, The Goldsmiths, The Montagus, The Mocattas,
George Soros.
MUSIC AND ART
Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir George Henschel , Gustav
Mahler, Mendelsohn, Offenbach, Georges Bizet, Benny Goodman, George and
Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard
Bernstein, Lionel Bart, Jerome Kern, Larry Adler , Steven Sondheim, Sammy
Cahn, Jacob Epstein, Marc Chagall.
SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY
Albert Einstein , William Herschel , Neils Bohr , Albert Michelson
,Heinrich Hertz, James Franck, Paul Ehrlich, Robert Oppenheimer, Edward
Teller, Isidor Rabi, Claude Levi-Strauss, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin
Buber , Karl Marx , Heinrich Heine, Spinoza, Sigmund Freud , Alfred Adler,
Jonas Salk.
SPORT
Harold Abrahams, Mark Spitz, Gary Jacobs, Ronnie Rosenthal, Joel
Stransky, Eyal Berkowitz, Phil Cohn (as we're struggling in this category,
I'm putting forward my grandfather, a useful boxer in the '20s in the East
End, I'm told, and the first and last time he'll ever be written about).
(ii) Yes, Jews have shaped our lives - the puzzle
Now I've finished wallowing in national pride. Let's face it, most books
you have read on the subject would have just left it with the above lists
in order to leave the impression in your mind of 'look at us, aren't
we great! Don't the facts speak for themselves?' But we need to say
what is usually not said explicitly. There is something special about
these folk! But what is it? Is it in the genes, a biologically inherited
characteristic? Is it the environment, perhaps something about being
herded into ghettos and forced into inward contemplation? These are
definitely contributory factors probably in the same way (and it has to be
said) why Afro-Caribbeans excel at music and sport (how many white
sprinters / heavy-weight boxers / basketball players etc do you know?).
But Jewish people have impacted the world in so many different spheres and
have influenced the thinking of the world so dramatically, that we need to
look deeper at this situation. The three men who have, arguably, most
influenced the 20th century, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx,
were all Jewish, as were the founders of two of the main world religions,
Judaism and Christianity. Even Mohammed, the founder of Islam, drew
greatly from Jewish sources. I'm sure someday someone will discover that
the Buddha was a victim of the first Diaspora who got lost and ended up in
India!
Like it or not, we Jews are pretty religious too. There is a joke that is
told, in various forms, by Jews the world over. It goes something like
this, in a heavy Yiddish accent:
'Sadie Cohen, an elderly Jewish lady from New York goes to her travel
agent.
"I vont to go to India."
"Mrs Cohen, India! It's filthy, it's too hot, and it's full of
brown people!"
"I vont to go to India."
"But it's a long journey. And what will you eat? The food's too
hot and spicy. You can't drink the water, you can't eat fresh fruit or
vegetables. You'll get ill. Plague, cholera, typhoid. God only knows. Can
you imagine? And no Jewish doctors. Why torture yourself?"
"I vont to go to India."
So arrangements are made and off she goes. She gets there and despite the
noise, the smells, the crowds, she gets to the ashram, a holy place. There
she joins the long queue waiting to see the guru, the holy man. She's told
she'll have to queue for three days. Out comes her knitting. Eventually
she's at the head of the queue. She's told firmly that she's allowed only
three words with the guru.
"Dat's OK."
She's ushered into the inner sanctum where the guru is seated, ready to
bestow blessings on eager disciples. Again she's reminded by an aide that
she's only got three words. Unlike every other visitor she doesn't
prostrate herself at his feet. She stands right in front of him, her arms
crossed, staring at him fixedly and says,
"Marvin, come home."'
You may laugh but Jews form a large proportion of both leaders and
followers of many spiritual movements, some of them decidedly dodgy.
You'll see them in yoga and meditation classes, New Age cults, Hindu and
Buddhist groups. One guru had so many Jewish disciples that he called them
'Hinjews'. Jews are not always as material minded as people think, many
seem to spend their lives searching to fill a spiritual 'hole in their
heart'.
So, what is special about this folk? And where does it say that these
people are special, chosen for some purpose? Where does it say "all
peoples on earth will be blessed through you." The Bible, of
course. How could the writers of the Bible have known about Einstein,
Freud and Marx (though it's hard to discern what sort of blessing we
received here, considering the fruits of their endeavours - the atom bomb,
overpaid psychiatrists and communism), to say nothing of the scores of
other major influences? How could they know about 'this one solitary life'
, the Jew, Jesus, written about in a famous essay?
"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a
peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter
shop until he was thirty, and then for three years he was an itinerant
preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an
office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his
foot inside a big city. He never travelled more than two hundred miles
from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that
usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself ... I am
far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all
the navies that ever were built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all
the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of
man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."
Like it or not the above is true, though the effects felt on the Jewish
nation as a result of this particular 'solitary life' has been one of the
tragedies of history, a subject that we will explore in the next chapter.
So the Bible predicted that these 'chosen people' would be a blessing for
the world. How could the writers of the Bible know that, at a time when
the Jews were but a small group of people amongst many others in a small
part of the world, they were to become a major influence on the world? How
did these writers know that out of all the ancient people such as the
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Edomites and Ammonites, only the Jews were to
survive as a people? How many Hittites do you know? Is there an Amalekite
down your road? Do you know any Canaanites at work? Of course not.
Although all of these people were contemporaries of the Jews, none of them
have survived - just as the Bible has predicted!
So Jewish people consider themselves 'chosen', though the mechanics and
reason for it generally eludes them. Indeed, God did choose them for a
very special task, to give the Bible to the world and to provide a people
from who's midst the Messiah of the World would come. But did it end
there? Did God have further plans for His people, the Jews? Whether He
did, or He didn't, there have been people who have had very clear plans
for the Jews throughout history. Now read on ...
