MovieChat Forums > Whoopi Goldberg Discussion > Are Jewish people a RACE or RELIGION? ...

Are Jewish people a RACE or RELIGION? And what about Catholics?

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
38 replies | jump to latest

My first thought about this controversy is to call her an idiot. She doesn't deserve to be in front of a microphone, and people who listen to her are idiots themselves.

But it did get me thinking.

I know Hitler most certainly thought of Jews as a "race", and was one of the biggest racists in history. And for that reason, the Holocaust was definitely "about race". The current American definition of "racism" doesn't typically include Jews, so in a very narrow sense, I can see Whoopi's point. (But please don't tell anyone!). The European definition of RACISM has always been more broad, to include {blacks, gypsies, Turks, Jews, Muslims, etc.}.

But Catholics are part of a "religion". Why then are Jews considered a "race", while Catholics are "only" a religion?

Is it more about having genetic ties to Israel?

[–] liscarkat (18897) 3 years ago

Anybody can be a Jew (Sammy Davis), but generally Jews are Caucasian.

[–] JohnnyDoe (1919) 3 years ago

Anybody can be a Jew (Sammy Davis), but generally Jews are privileged.

[–] mtxmind (3296) 3 years ago

generally Jews are Caucasian.

Strictly speaking, that's not entirely accurate. Sure pure caucasians & other non-white gentiles can be "jews" by religion via conversion, but most ethnic Jews nowadays (Ashkenazi) are a mix of caucasian & middle eastern semitic (arab) races (to varying degrees)

[–] EleazarHisSon (754) 2 years ago

Jews are often said to be an ethno-religious group. A Jew who becomes an atheist or Christian is considered in a historical context to still be a Jew (Nazi Germany, the "New Christians" in Spain, etc). Such is often the case to this day, I believe.

There are various kinds of Jews, from European Jews to black Falasha Jews from Ethiopia. I haven't seen East Asian Jews, but there exist by legend Chinese Jews.

Judaism is open for conversion, but it isn't an easy and straightforward process like becoming a Christian (baptized and accepting Jesus) or Muslim (taking the shahada, repeating in Arabic that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger). This is set in a way so that by conversion, your descendants are expected to be assimilated and ethnically Jewish.

European Jews are not a different race than gentile Europeans, they're Caucasians. There are two types of European Jews, Ashkenazim (Eastern European Jews) and Sephardim (Southern European Jews, mainly from Spain and Portugal). Ashkenazim have in some cases distinct facial features that make many think that Jews can be told apart from gentiles by their looks. Sephardim, however, do not really.