Discussion: When and why did Jews come to be seen as a race and not just a religion?

[HistoricalArthropod]

Dont fully ethnic jews who convert to another religion lose their law of return eligibility to Israel?

 

[Deleted member 109224]

So Karl Marx wasn't a Jew? Albert Einstein wasn't a Jew?

Marx's father was a Jew (who also happened to have converted to protestantism) so theologically speaking he wasn't Jewish.
Marx's father was still a Jew theologically because even a Jew who embraces outside religious practices is considered a Jew still.

Dont fully ethnic jews who convert to another religion lose their law of return eligibility to Israel?

No. Israel lets any convert or any person who has at least 1 Jewish grandparent move there.

 

[PNWKing]

Jews came to be seen as a race and not a religion in the 19th century. About this time the term "Jew hatred" was replaced with "anti-Semitism", Semitism referring to the descent of Jews from the Semites. (I learned most of this from a course called "History of the Holocaust.")

 

[Socrates]

Marx's father was a Jew (who also happened to have converted to protestantism) so theologically speaking he wasn't Jewish.
Marx's father was still a Jew theologically because even a Jew who embraces outside religious practices is considered a Jew still.

I am not limiting it to "theologically speaking". I am talking about being Jewish ethnically. Marx was a Jew.

 

[danteheadman]

Dont fully ethnic jews who convert to another religion lose their law of return eligibility to Israel?

Yes. But this applies only to "a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion." Jews who simply cease to practice Judaism without converting to another religion remain eligible.

 

[The Professor]

I am not limiting it to "theologically speaking". I am talking about being Jewish ethnically. Marx was a Jew.

Only by some people's definitions, by others he isn't.
That's the problem with ethnicity it doesn't have an exact objective definition. That's how we get nth generation Americans claiming they're ethnically Irish. Some of my ancestors spoke Middle to Early Modern Welsh does that make me ethnically Welsh? Ditto French? How much does my own identity and religious practices matter in defining my ethnicity?

 

[Deleted member 109224]

I am not limiting it to "theologically speaking". I am talking about being Jewish ethnically. Marx was a Jew.

His father was ethnically Jewish, and you could argue he was half-Jewish. He also was very antisemitic.

 

[HistoricalArthropod]

About this time the term "Jew hatred" was replaced with "anti-Semitism"

How come hatred of other semitic peoples isnt called anti semitism then? Arabs are semites, as are the Amharic/Tigriyna people of Ethiopia.

 

[DocJamore]

How come hatred of other semitic peoples isnt called anti semitism then? Arabs are semites, as are the Amharic/Tigriyna people of Ethiopia.

It was already explained. The term was created and intended to refer to exclusively anti-jewish prejudice. Arabs were not ever a consideration when it was coined. And it has stuck around because prejudice against Jews is still a problem and we need a word for it. Linguistics can be funny in that way and it has nearly two hundred years of momentum behind it. The word means what it means and it is not changing.

 

[PrinceofApathy]

His father was ethnically Jewish, and you could argue he was half-Jewish. He also was very antisemitic.

Both his parents were Jewish by birth, but converted to Lutheranism before Marx was born. Halachically, Marx would be known as a tinok shenishba: literally "abductee". Someone who was brought up among a different people and isn't responsible for their lack of observance. I don't think he was no more or less antisemitic than the average German at the time. He just took the common beliefs of the time and translated them into his unique worldview.