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Friday, March 12, 2010

24

Wait A Minute, I Thought It Was The Mother's Side That Counted

leo and barAn extremist Orthodox Jewish organization has written a letter to Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli asking her not to marry her non-Jew American boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio.

In the letter, as Haaretz reports, a representative of the Israeli nationalist group Lehava writes:

"It is not by chance that you were born Jewish. Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family's future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people."

But wait. It was my understanding that it's the mother's Jewness that matters in this regard. I myself am half-Jewish. But on my father's side. So while I was raised Jewish, went to temple and Hebrew school and all that, when it came time for me to be bar mitzvahed, the rabbi said I would have to be officially converted beforehand, in a ceremony that would involve me being ritually RE-CIRCUMCISED at the advanced, yet still very tender in some ways, age of thirteen years old!!! Now, if you think for one minute that there was any way in hell I was going to let those crazy motherfu... Well, let's just say that another rabbi, a family friend, was able to pull some strings and and sign some papers and I stayed far away from the mohel's glistening blade. Anyway, even after I was bar mitzvahed, on a trip to Israel almost ten years later, I was stopped at a gate near the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem by an orthodox guy who started asking me all these questions about my family and when I told him that my mom was, in fact, Christian, he wouldn't let me into the area nearest the wall. If my mother had been Jewish, he said, it would have been okay. So what's going on? Wouldn't Bar Rafaeli's children be automatically Jewish under Jewish law, by virtue of her Jewish womb, despite the traife, goyishe seed it incubated?

Also, isn't it strange that boys have a "bar" mitzvah and girls have a "bat" mitzvah and yet Bar Rafaeli is named Bar? Wouldn't that be like an Italian guy being named, like, Bella Donna? Woah. Wait a minute. Is Bar Rafaeli actually a man?!

24 Comments / Post A Comment

petejayhawk
petejayhawk (#1,249)

Why didn't you just tell the orthodox guy your mom was Jewish?

Sackin
Sackin (#2,393)

Dave that happened when i went to Israel too, except it was by soldiers and even scarier.

jayem
jayem (#3,809)

Based on the headline I thought (and really hoped) this was going to be about baldness genes. Still hoping to dodge a bullet there.

Gef the Talking Mongoose

I take all my relationship advice from extremist religious organizations.

HiredGoons
HiredGoons (#603)

When my dad married my mom his mother was like 'Jack, you're going to marry a Jew!?'

He replied: 'Mom, you don't even know what that is.'

Dave Bry
Dave Bry (#422)

That is excellent.

Lindsay Robertson

This is obviously a reverse psychology trick plotted by Bar Rafaeli to get Leo to be like "No way some Rabbi is going to tell me how to live my life!" and marry her. I mean, they aren't even engaged.

ContainsHotLiquid

Also enemies of the Jewish people: etc.

Abe Sauer
Abe Sauer (#148)

What about non-Jew Americans with very Jewish NAMES?

oudemia
oudemia (#177)

I think that means you have right of first refusal.

HiredGoons
HiredGoons (#603)

To whom are you referring Abram Sauer?

Dave Bry
Dave Bry (#422)

"Avraham"

(as they pronounced my middle name at my bar mitzvah.)

NotAndersonCooper

What does the pope say?

HiredGoons
HiredGoons (#603)

Kill them all and let God sort 'em out.

kitten_witawip

Don't use birth control.

Tulletilsynet
Tulletilsynet (#333)

No play the game, no make the rules.

kneetoe
kneetoe (#1,881)

Um . . . when he pulled those strings . . . did it hurt much?

In terms of Jewishness, I think the entire maternal/paternal thing varies among different groups. But I believe Israeli citizenship requires a Jewish mother (since, after all, you never REALLY know who the father is).

Actually, I checked it out on the internets, and, for the Law of Return:

"For the purposes of this Law, "Jew" means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has converted to Judaism and is not a member of another religion."

jaimeleigh
jaimeleigh (#1,840)

So apparently, the whole "Jewishness passed through maternal side" thing is an outdated rule that is sort of being phased out. The thought is that the reason it existed at all is because at the time, you couldn't always know who your father was but you can always know who your mother is. How do you know if you're really Jewish if your Jewishness comes from the father but you can't really be certain your father is your father? But! Now with sound paternity verification methods this is no longer an issue. I think. I don't know if that's true or not, but I heard it from a Jewish person!

HiredGoons
HiredGoons (#603)

But they are crafty, cunning, and not to be trusted.

*(counts sheckles)

Dave Bry
Dave Bry (#422)

Even harder to be sure who the father is when the conception took place through a sheet, I suppose.

Colonel Mustard

This is my kinda post.

kolk
kolk (#3,846)

another one of those days where it feels like everybody's jewish.

hilllady
hilllady (#2,603)

Friend's dad, to me, this weekend: "So, your fiance. His name is . . . ?"
Me: "Mike"
Friend's dad: "And last name . . .?"
I tell him.
Friend's dad: "So. . . he's not Jewish."
Me: "No."
Long pause.
Friend's dad: "He must have a Jewish soul."
For some reason, I found this exchange rather sweet.

wiilliiaamm
wiilliiaamm (#225)

I found out this year that my biological father is Jewish. It meant alot to me - I used to muse about converting to the Jewish faith--if only for the ready made heritage ( I'm an adopted bastard child).

I was joyful at the news of my fathers faith and ethnicity--yet disapointed that I could not fully claim it as my own -- so I am left to awkwardly explain my half breed self at the seders I attend. My blond hair and brilliant blue eyes make things even more complicated to some of the ancients.

I just hope that my past experience as the invited gentile doesnt change though--which was always such warmth and welcome.

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