http://israleft.org/?p=165 Airing out Israel's dirty laundry Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:57:18 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://israleft.org/?p=165&cpage=1#comment-413 Ofer Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:33:39 +0000 http://israleft.org/?p=165#comment-413 Judaism never was "faith only", and most likely will never be "nationality only". Judaism is a tribal identity, very much the same as the identity of the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, where religion and nationality are intertwined. This is the very reason you can be born Jewish, or become Jewish. This is also the reason why calling this campaign racist is quite a stretch. Other nations were able to make the transition from a tribal identity to modern identity, in which nationality isn't the same as religion, due to historical reasons. These reasons don't apply to the Jewish people, if only for the reason that Jews are scattered all over the planet. That is a very poor start for an ethnic identity. Judaism never was “faith only”, and most likely will never be “nationality only”.
Judaism is a tribal identity, very much the same as the identity of the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, where religion and nationality are intertwined.
This is the very reason you can be born Jewish, or become Jewish.
This is also the reason why calling this campaign racist is quite a stretch.
Other nations were able to make the transition from a tribal identity to modern identity, in which nationality isn’t the same as religion, due to historical reasons.
These reasons don’t apply to the Jewish people, if only for the reason that Jews are scattered all over the planet.
That is a very poor start for an ethnic identity.

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