AM I A JEW?

Posted: October 25, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Am I a Jew?

I was born to Jewish parents, but:

I am not religious.

I am not a Zionist, although I do think Israel is a great place to visit and filled with beauty, people and landscapes both included.

I do not keep kosher.

I am not a spend-thrift and I tip fairly well. Most of the time.

I do not wear a kippa, or “one of those funny little hats” as an old colleague of mine once referred to them, on my head.

It makes no difference to me that I’m circumcised and if nobody had told me that I was, I probably wouldn’t have even known since I have no memory of the ritual.

I have not set foot inside of a synagogue in about twenty years.

I don’t pray to God. Or to anything.

I don’t own any space lasers and I have absolutely zero control of the media.

I don’t live in a ghetto or wear a yellow star.

I don’t know Hebrew. Or Yiddish, for that matter. I am, however, fluent in Pig Latin.

I don’t make being Jewish a part of my daily life – This isn’t a choice; it’s just not something that I think about very often.

Until I have to.

I don’t understand why my being Jewish matters so much to everyone, but for some reason it does.

For some it wholly defines who I am in their eyes.

So, because others seem to need me to be one,

I am a Jew.