Jewish Heritage

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by friendorfoe, Jan 7, 2012.

Loading...
  1. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Okay so...I'm kinda wondering this evening. I found out over the Christmas holiday that my Great Grandmother on my Mom's side of the family was Jewish. So being raised Irish Protestant this raises some questions (note my family's political leanings are that of Irish Catholic traditionally).

    First, I assume this does not qualify me or my family as "Jewish" in the Jewish community correct?

    Second, the Nazis rounded up Jewish people but to what generation (this is just out of pure curiosity mind you).

    Third, now I'm wondering more about her (my great grandmother) and her parents and their heritage which oddly enough my family never deigned important enough to discuss).
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I know some Pequots and they told me that the number is 1/16th. I don't know if that applies generally or if it's just a Pequot rule.
     
  3. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Hitler's rule was that 25% Jewish (one Jewish grandparent) was Jewish enough for the concentration camps. Not sure what the Jews themselves think is "Jewish enough."
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I'm not a Jew, but I strongly doubt that Jews delegated to Hitler the authority to decide whether someone is or not. Wikipedia suggests that the traditional criterion is having a Jewish mother. So if this great-grandmother was your mother's mother's mother, then L'chaim, buddy, because you're a Jew.
     
  5. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Thanks Steve, it turns out you are right. I am 100% not Jewish according to the traditional Jewish viewpoint. It is passed down through the mothers NOT the fathers. In my case my grandfather is 100% Jewish but his daughter (my mom) is not because it was her father and not her mother that was Jewish. Therefore even though I am born of her neither she nor I would be considered a Jew.

    Oddly enough, Adolf Hitler and his band-o-thugs would have taken my mother and grandfather to a concentration camp but not me, since the lineage is from my great grandmother (and her mother, etc.)
     
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Even at that I have the feeling Hitler wouldn't exactly have bought you a drink.
     
  7. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    That's his loss...I'd have drank his butt under the table and had him wearing a tutu before the night would be over anyway. I'm sure he's doing shooters with Stalin in hell right about now anyway.
     
  8. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    You are correct that the Jews themselves never delegated to Hitler the authority to define Jewishness, but the OP did ask what Hitler's definition of Jewishness was.
     

Share This Page