Man, I say this a lot and I know it comes across standoffish, but… US ethnic categorizations seem bonkers to me.
What does “half Jewish half Irish” even mean? Isn’t that a Jewish person from Ireland? That would count as fully both things. What are the other two halves?
This is why I have to think about the immigration form for ten minutes each time I get through customs in the US, it’s all “was any of your grandparents a smurf?” and “are you latino and/or lactose intolerant?” and stuff like that. It makes no sense.
You can be raised by one Jewish parent and one Other parent and still not be a follower of Judaism. You might still have a Jewish cultural heritage and place in the world despite differing theological views.
This comes from the religious law. I don’t think it has anything to do with chromosomes. There are still families that traditionally believe that though, despite not being religious. I haven’t met many people who identify as Jewish or partially Jewish due to their father being Jewish though.
People can be ethnically Jewish or religiously Jewish and they are separate identities. Historically, religiously jewish people tended to only marry other religiously jewish people, leading to the formation of a jewish ethnicity over time. For many, these identities are closely intertwined, for others they have both but view them separately. And for many others still, they only fit into one category or the other.
Irish, in contrast, is only an ethnicity but not a religion. (Unless you count certain sects of Celtic Paganism, but that’s usually not what people mean)
If one parent is predominantly of Jewish heritage and the other of Irish heritage, then their child might identify as half-jewish-half-irish.
Genetically speaking, they are likely less than 50% of each because that would imply that each parent was completely and totally 100% their respective ethnicity genetically, which is (if possible) very very unlikely and realistically not 100% strictly defined.
People like to categorize things, including categories. For some, a part of their identity is based on the ethnic categories they fit themselves into, and some group these categories under one subsection of their identity, and assign weights to the different components of that category.
I love the funny things our pattern seeking brains do in order to quantify the unquantifiable and to better establish a sense of belonging and self in this amorphous and crazy society we’re all a part of. What’s really great is that none of what I’ve said is even universally true. It’s just (from my observation) the most common way I’ve seen all these categories combined. If you disagree, you’re completely free to do so, and neither of us are wrong until we start using numbers and statistics in our argument
Wonderfully put, kind internet-stranger-sir. I have done the same observations and conclusions. Now we both can add a +1 on the drawer “this specific observation might be objective reality”. And due to the +1 the unquantifiable became a tiny bit more quantifiable. Even though there is no clear numerical target. Which also makes it totally useless to add a +1 😊
It’s an ethnic group and a religion. The vast majority of the religious group is from the ethnic group because they usually don’t try to convert people. Her note about being secular indicates she is part of the ethnic group but not part of the relegious group.
Man, I say this a lot and I know it comes across standoffish, but… US ethnic categorizations seem bonkers to me.
What does “half Jewish half Irish” even mean? Isn’t that a Jewish person from Ireland? That would count as fully both things. What are the other two halves?
This is why I have to think about the immigration form for ten minutes each time I get through customs in the US, it’s all “was any of your grandparents a smurf?” and “are you latino and/or lactose intolerant?” and stuff like that. It makes no sense.
One parent is Irish and the other is Jewish.
So what are the religion and nationality of the other parents and why don’t they count?
Jewish is also an ethnicity. That’s why they can be ‘secular’ while still being half Jewish.
In this context Jewish is the ethnicity, Mara actually calls it out in the tweet
In this context Jewish is an ethnicity. Please go look this stuff up
Jews have lived in exile for so long that it created a genetically distinct ethnicity.
Yo. Pro tip: Judaism is the religion. Jewish is the ethnicity. A quick search would have told you that.
Jewish in this context refers to an ethnic group, as does Irish
Or one parent was Irish and Jewish and the other was french and atheist
You can be raised by one Jewish parent and one Other parent and still not be a follower of Judaism. You might still have a Jewish cultural heritage and place in the world despite differing theological views.
If it’s the mother then they are Jewish, if it’s the father they are not
I didn’t know the genes for Judaism were located in the X chromosome.
That’s how they view it
This comes from the religious law. I don’t think it has anything to do with chromosomes. There are still families that traditionally believe that though, despite not being religious. I haven’t met many people who identify as Jewish or partially Jewish due to their father being Jewish though.
People can be ethnically Jewish or religiously Jewish and they are separate identities. Historically, religiously jewish people tended to only marry other religiously jewish people, leading to the formation of a jewish ethnicity over time. For many, these identities are closely intertwined, for others they have both but view them separately. And for many others still, they only fit into one category or the other.
Irish, in contrast, is only an ethnicity but not a religion. (Unless you count certain sects of Celtic Paganism, but that’s usually not what people mean)
If one parent is predominantly of Jewish heritage and the other of Irish heritage, then their child might identify as half-jewish-half-irish.
Genetically speaking, they are likely less than 50% of each because that would imply that each parent was completely and totally 100% their respective ethnicity genetically, which is (if possible) very very unlikely and realistically not 100% strictly defined.
People like to categorize things, including categories. For some, a part of their identity is based on the ethnic categories they fit themselves into, and some group these categories under one subsection of their identity, and assign weights to the different components of that category.
I love the funny things our pattern seeking brains do in order to quantify the unquantifiable and to better establish a sense of belonging and self in this amorphous and crazy society we’re all a part of. What’s really great is that none of what I’ve said is even universally true. It’s just (from my observation) the most common way I’ve seen all these categories combined. If you disagree, you’re completely free to do so, and neither of us are wrong until we start using numbers and statistics in our argument
Wonderfully put, kind internet-stranger-sir. I have done the same observations and conclusions. Now we both can add a +1 on the drawer “this specific observation might be objective reality”. And due to the +1 the unquantifiable became a tiny bit more quantifiable. Even though there is no clear numerical target. Which also makes it totally useless to add a +1 😊
I think the confusing part is that Jewish is considered by most people to be both a religion and an ethnicity.
Yeah I’m still not sure about that.
I think it’s an ethnic group with a religion and sometimes a non ethnic person join them?
It’s an ethnic group and a religion. The vast majority of the religious group is from the ethnic group because they usually don’t try to convert people. Her note about being secular indicates she is part of the ethnic group but not part of the relegious group.
Can confirm. I am half Jewish, Secular, and coincidentally have a pretty serious nickel allergy.
How difficult is this concept?
Mother from Ireland Father from Israel, ethnically Jewish
50/50 ignoring realistic genetic history.
Removed by mod
Nice to meet you, America.
Maybe she’s America Ferrara.