--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Another point - I think it is inaccurate to say that
> Jews were considered a
> separate ethnic group in Eastern Europe. They were
> primarily identified as
> a separate *religious* group, and those who gave up
> that religious identity
> could assimilate and be indistinguishable from the
> rest of the population.
> You cannot say that of different ethnic group. No
> level of assimilation can
> make them indistinguishable.
>
Sure you can. If Ukrainians were to move to Moscow, adopt completely Russian customs, and speak the Russian language exclusively, in a generation or two they would be Russians. They would have assimilated.
I think part of the matter is the Soviet-era muddling of the issue, which _explicitly declared_ European Jews to be a nationality, just like Russians or Ukrainians or Uzbeks or whatever.
The Tsars must have been somewhat fluid on this -- IIRC Lenin's grandfather (greatgrandfather?) converted to Orthodoxy from Judaism and became something of a persecutor of Jews.
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com