Being Jewish is multi-faceted. There is Jewish culture, Jewish history, Jewish religion, Jewish identity, Jewish lineage, etc. All of those make up different parts of being jewish.

Ultimately, to be a Jew (religion) means to accept the three covenants between man and god. The first god made with Noach and it is the promise to be a good human: don’t steal, don’t kill, etc. The second was between god and abraham to love and live in Israel and the third between god and moses to keep the torah.

If you do not accept these three then you are a great a fine person and a jew (identity) or jew (history) but not a jew (religion) no matter how many bagels you eat. On the other hand, if you keep them then you are a Jew (religion) no matter what the circumstances of your birth.

Bottom line: you can feel jewish, call yourself jewish, eat cold sweet smelly ashkenazi food, feel guilty all the time, parade on fifth avenue for israel and cry on holocaust memorial day and these things make you jewish in some ways or another but they do not make you a person of the jewish religion. When orthodox jews talk about being jewish they talk about being a part of the jewish religion. when you talk about being jewish you talk about thinking woody allen is funny. we’re not talking about the same thing.

Muffti doesn’t put a whole lot of stock in this religion stuff but he does like to see these sorts of barriers come down, especially between two communities that haven’t always historically gotten along very well. So, yeshar-koach Alysa,