Who's A Jew?

How to define a Jew?  I say that if it looks like a Jew, walks like a Jews, behaves like a Jew, and claims to be a Jew, it's a Jew.  But how does a Jew behave?  What does a Jew look like?

Theologically, a Jew is anyone with a Jewish mother.  Or, someone who's been converted to Judaism by an Orthodox rabbi.  Clearly that leaves out a whole lot of people who think they're Jewish and are accepted as Jewish by their community.  Clearly, Hitler had a more expansive picture as to who was a Jew.

The Orthodox claim they're being so persnickety, because otherwise the boundaries of Judaism and what truly constitutes Judaism would be lost.  What they don't understand is that for better or worse, they, the Orthodox, are in a poor position to lay claim to being the ultimate deciders as to is and who is not a Jew.

Let's look at a few items that would seem to tell who's Jewish and who isn't.  Can a Jew have more than one wife?  Roughly a thousand years ago. Rabbi Gershom banned the practice of polygamy.  Before that, it had been perfectly acceptable for a Jew to have more than one wife.  But then Gershom comes along and says, no.  It's not acceptable.  So is that Judaism?  Nothing more, nothing less than the opinion of a noted rabbi?  We should also point out that Rabbi Gershom's ban of polygamy applied only to Ashkenazi Jews.  Sephardic Jews continued to practice polygamy up until the State of Israel emerged.  But, again, it was not a theological decision, but rather a political one; a decision  that better resonated with modern ethics.

Then too there is the matter of Jewish prayer.  At the time of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews showed their devotion to God by bringing sacrifices to the Temple.  They might bring a pidgin, or a lamb, or some barley.  What they brought depended on their wealth and their fervor.  Then came the  expulsion of Jews to Babylonia.  No more temple to which to bring sacrifices.  What to do?  They decided to substitute prayer for sacrifice.

A problem arose when King Cyrus ended their expulsion and allowed those who wished to return to Israel.  Those Jews who had avoided expulsion, the Sadducees, continued the practice of animal sacrifice.  The returnees from Babylonia, the Pharisees, showed their devotion through prayer.  The split between the Pharisees and the Sadducees ended with the final destruction of the Temple by the Romans.  No more Temple, no more sacrifices, no more Sadducees.

The point is that Judaism, is a religion that has evolved, as have so many other religions.  But some subdivisions try to keep to their peculiar beliefs.  An example that springs to mind are the Neturei Karta.  As they see it, there should be no State of Israel.  A Jewish nation should arise only upon the return of the Messiah.  He clearly hasn't returned and so Israel is something that shouldn't be.  Quite odd, but that's the way it goes in the land of Orthodoxy.

As to the Chief Rabbis of Israel, one Ashkenasie, the other Sephardic, they issue their that only the Haredi have any faith in.  The more secular Jews, the ones that do the heavy lifting, militarily, in order to protect their fellow Jews, find that their thoughts are never weighed by the poobahs in Jerusalem.