At 11:46 AM 05/01/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> But the long and short of it is that you have try to understand it. Of
> course you can dismiss it as as a lot of superstitious claptrap, but then
> you will miss the opportunity to try to understand phenomena that are
> real and imporatnt, if not ruled by formal logic.
-I did not dismiss it as superstitious claptrap, nor did I address myself to -the issue of conversion -- just to the issue of what would constitute -"proof" of Jewishness as determined by blood. And this does not involve -either religious belief or cultural practice. If I'm wrong, I wait to be -corrected.
But Justin's point is that there is no "proof". It all depends because there is a complicated anthropology of the odd intersection of Jewishness as race, Jewishness as religion, and Jewishness as culture. For example, I'm half-Jewish but on the wrong side (my Dad) which means that no orthodox thinks I'm Jewish but some Reform folks might but mostly because they see it on the more cultural side of things. Many Catholics will describe themselves as culturally Catholic in similar terms even when they no longer go to church, and even their kids may identify similarly depending on the community. The Right of Return is as much about saving people from discrimination based on an external definition of Jewishness that is separate from internal Jewish definitions of Jewishness.
So it's all very odd and complicated, both on internal Jewish definitions and on external definitions of Jewishness.
-- Nathan