What does it mean to be Jewish?

Question

Orthodox?
Reform?
Conservative?
Everday Jews?
What makes a person Jewish?
Can anything disqualify a Jewish person who wishes to be called a Jew from continuing to be Jewish?
Are there Jews who do not believe in God and do not practice Jewish customs?
If a Jew is born Jewish, follows Jewish rituals and customs, but they believe in a Messiah, is that person Jewish?

Answer 1

to many questions.Find a Rabi..........

Answer 2

Orthodox- follows the Torah as it has always been followed.
Reform- Follows what makes them feel good
Conservative- Follows the Torah, unless they could think of a reason not to.
Everday Jews- I don't know what you mean.
What makes a person Jewish- being born to a Jewish mother, or having a proper, Orthodox conversion
Can anything disqualify a Jewish person who wishes to be called a Jew from continuing to be Jewish- If they're really Jewish, converting to a different religion may disqualify them, it's a complicated issue.
Are there Jews who do not believe in God and do not practice Jewish customs? Yes, either Reform or atheists who had Jewish ancestors
If a Jew is born Jewish, follows Jewish rituals and customs, but they believe in a Messiah, is that person Jewish?
All Jews believe in a Messiah, it's just not the christian one. For those who believe in the christian one, they're considered converts to christianity, and it's a complicated question.

Answer 3

I am going to answer this question in hopes that you qive me 10 points.

An Orthodox Jew is a Jew who can not drive a car, or open doors, or take elevators during Friday night to Saturday night and also on any given High Holidays.

A Reform Jew is a who can do everything that the Orthodox Jew can not do.

A Conservative Jew does the same as a Reform Jew

Everyday Jews is a generalization and it is not allowed among the Jews.

There are plenty of things that you can do to be disqualified, but because I am not a Rabbi, I cannot answer this question.

Some do and some dont pratice the Jewish customs.

A Jewish born person does know for a fact that Messiah is comming and that he is a definitely a Jewish person according to the Bible.

Read up on being Jewish

Answer 4

A jew is someone who is obligated to keep the commandments incumbant upon "jews". Israelite might be a more appropriate term for this element of being jewish.
However, a complete jew, or someone who is "jewish", is someone who practices judaism and thus represents the jewish people.
My opinion is that it is only those movements which unite under the heading of orthodox (like the yeshivish, litvish, and various chassidish movements) actually practice judaism as it was established so long ago. Reform, conservative, and others are simply bastardized versions of judaism, much like christianity is.

To be obligated to follow the laws incumbant upon jews requires that one either be born of a jewish mother or have undergone a *kosher* conversion.

There are, unfortunately, many jews who dont act jewish.

Regarding your last question, it is a bit complicated and arguable. It also depends on the nature of the person believed in and the reasons why and the theological implications of such belief. In short, if someone believes in jesus or sabbatai zvi, they are no longer considered part of the jewish community. A jew, but not jewish.

cheerio

http://www.JewsForJudaism.org

Answer 5

There are two types of Jews: Jews-by-birth, and Jews-by-choice (proselytes, known in Hebrew as "gerim"). Both are absolutely one hundred percent Jewish. A Jew-by-birth is anyone born to a Jewish mother - even if the mother is a Jew-by-choice. A Jew-by-choice is someone who converts to Judaism in accordance with Torah Law (that is, they accept the entire Torah, and all the mitzvot, and are converted under the auspices of a Beis Din, a Rabbinical court).

Being Jewish is a condition of the soul. It is imparted to those born of Jewish women, and it is acquired by those who choose to become Jewish. It can't be called exclusivist for the very reason that conversion is possible. That being said, Judaism does not actively seek converts, nor do you have to be Jewish according to the Torah to be "saved," to avoid the eternal agony of Hell, or whatever. G-d is not a sadist. What's more, before the covenant with Avraham Avinu (Our Father Abraham), he also made a covenant with Noah, the archetypical example of the righteous non-Jew. Contained therein are the seven Noachide Mitzvot, given to all humanity (see: http://www.aish.com/literacy/judaism123/The_7_Noachide_Laws.asp). All people who keep these commandments (and they are already integrated into numerous religions) are guaranteed a share in the hereafter, as the Rambam said: "The righteous of all nations have a portion in the World to Come."

There are Jews who sadly, do not believe in G-d, and who do not follow the Torah. There is no way one can stop being Jewish. One may stray from the proper path, but they do not become a non-Jew. Rather they become a Jew who needs to make tshuvah (lit. "return," meaning repentance).

That last question of yours strikes me as a bit loaded:

"If a Jew is born Jewish, follows Jewish rituals and customs, but they believe in a Messiah, is that person Jewish?"

The Messiah, and our awaiting him, is an integral part of our faith! It is in fact, one of the Thirteen Principles laid out, again, by the Rambam. That being said, when the Messiah comes, there will be no need to "believe," since he will usher in an age of universal peace and harmony, the Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalayim will be rebuilt, prophecies will be fulfilled, etc., etc. You won't need to "believe" in the Messiah any more than you have to "believe" that the sky is blue. It just is. It's obvious.

I'm guessing, however, that you're referring specifically to Jesus, and to the so-called "Messianic Jews". If such a person is born Jewish, and practices "Messianic Judaism" (read: Evangelical Protestant Christianity), they are still Jewish, but their religion is not. There are Jews out there practicing Buddhism, but no one in his right mind would say that this makes Buddhism a form of Judaism. Christianity is no different. You can call it Judaism, and you can call your Pastor a Rabbi, but it doesn't change a thing. There is far more distinguishing Christianity (including Messianic "Judaism") from Judaism than just Jesus.

As I seem to do in a lot of these answers, I will recommend a book: "Judaism and Christianity: The Differences," by Dr. Trude Weiss-Rosmarin. It's a bit dry, but thorough, not too long, and a good read.

I would also recommend the websites www.jewsforjudaism.com (Jews for Judaism), www.messiahtruth.com (The Messiah Truth Project), www.aish.com (Aish HaTorah), www.simpletoremember.com (Judaism Online - some great articles there)...

And if you're interested in learning the differences between the Jewish denominations, Simple to Remember I think has an article on that (as well as one discussing the matter of Jesus). Here's an article on Jewish denominations on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_denominations -- Wikipedia is now infamous for misinformation, but from what I can tell, this article at least looks alright. Enjoy!

PS: Hey, nice answer, Nasser. Where's they teach you that? Ku Klux Kollege? You too, Coolz. Yeah... "I'm not racist or anything, but watch me go and make a derrogatory generalization about an entire ethnic group." How does that even answer the question? Are you saying that to be Jewish means to be cheap?

Somebody, help! We're surrounded by morons!

Answer 6

there are many books written discussing this exact thing...

from most, to least actively observant:
Hassidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform.

there are some sub-groupings like ultra-orthodox which is, rather self explanatorily between hasid's and orthodox. there are also some who consider themselves jewish and are even more secular than reform. and not all reform groups are considered "in" by conservative and up.

there is ONE certain, core belief that ALL jewish people unanimously agree on, and if you do not belive that, then you are not jewish.

(edit: that belief being in a single, undivided, all encompassing God, no 3-in-1, simply, absolutely, one god, without division)

there are also 2 aspects of judaism, the "heritage" and the "religion" someone who is jewish by blood, that is, their mother was jewish, gets the heritage. but this is independent of their religion, and if they do not belive jewish things they do not count as "jewish".
if someone properly, fully, and completely converts into judaism, they are considered adopted into the heritage as such, only on a few rare things is there a distinction made between people who are born jewish and properly converted.

a person who is born jewish, but belives that the messiah has come, at this time, is no longer jewish. simply because by jewish belief, the messiah has not come.

especially in the way that its generally known, this IS disqualifying.

you might be interested (honestly, and seriously) to read this site, http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/ it explains some of the distinctions and why it is that one cannot be jewish, and belive in Jesus as the messiah, and ESPECIALLY not as god.

this is the ultra-simple broken down to the bare essentials version of the answers... like I said, there are many books that discuss this both literally and philosophically in signifigantly more depth.

Answer 7

A Jew is a person who practices Judaism.

There is no one who can currently claim to have been a former citizen or resident of Judea, a Roman Province from which the term "Jew" derived.

There are far more fake Jews than there are real Jews. Most Israelis are not Jews of any kind.

Answer 8

You'd need someone to write q book to answer all your questions.

I will answer only the last one.

If a Jew converts to Christianity, he is no longer a Jew. He is a Christian. One cannot be of two different religions at the same time.

Answer 9

I'm not racist at all,.I love everybody,but I grew up in Brooklyn where there's alot of Jewish people,and one thing I know for a fact,that they are very cheap,I mean very cheap.

Answer 10

I think the best person to ask this question is a Rabbi at a local Synagogue.

Answer 11

Its very like a club really.