i like bill maher but why does he keep

[DesertFlower]

denying that he is a jew. he was raised catholic but his mother was jewish and according to jewish law you are what your mother is.

i feel like he's disrespecting his mother. he has at times admitted that she's jewish.

[Wella]

1. I don't think he denies he's a cultural Jew

He's just not religious.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. From what he's said, he was raised in the Catholic Church.

And he's not much of a fan of any religion.

[Wella]

6. Only in elementary school

If you watch Religiulous, his mom explains that she thought the school "taught all good things." It was more about moral education than religious identity.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Ah ha! Thank you!

And certainly the Catholic Church has had no harsher critic than Bull Maher. With a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, I've always figured that Bill feels this gives him the background to be an equal opportunity religion critic.

BTW, my grandmother was just the opposite. My grandfather died when my youngest uncle was only three, so she had to return to work. There was no day care back in those days, so she was always grateful that there was a very good Jewish preschool willing to accept my uncle.

[Wella]

10. A lot of people like religious schools because they think they are better at morals and ethics

A lot depends on the school, of course.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. When my Dad was 12, he wanted to join a different church to be in the choir

My grandmother told him that she didn't care if it was a different church as long as he belonged to one. And he did stick with it, was the same church where my brother and I were eventually baptized. Of course, that was an entirely different generation.

[DesertFlower]

17. i was raised catholic but gave up my religion

in my early 20s. however i did send my son to catholic school because i felt he would get a better education.

[closeupready]

3. I wasn't aware that he denied being Jewish.

Is he doing that now? If so, I have no answer. I suppose in some respects, we should all be able to self-define. It is certainly true that Orthodox Jews consider someone Jewish if the mother is Jewish, regardless of the ethnicity or religion of the father.

Is it possible, given his well-known prejudices against muslims, that he is attempting to immunize himself against allegations that he is biased by the troubles in the Near East? Who knows.

I've already spent more time talking and thinking about him and his bigotry than I should.

Peace to you, DesertFlower.

[DesertFlower]

14. he denied it tonight. he and martin short

were joking about why people think they're jewish. maher even mentioned it might be because he has a big nose.

he said he was raised catholic, but he could have said his mom was jewish.

we all know he's an atheist.

[riderinthestorm]

4. I tend to take people's word on how they define themselves

Maher says he's an atheist and not religious.

That's enough for me

[Hekate]

21. Bingo

[silverweb]

5. According to Jewish law.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]If he doesn't follow Jewish law, why should he claim to be Jewish?

Being Jewish is three separate things: an ethnicity, a culture, and a religion. He acknowledges the ethnic heritage but doesn't follow the rest.

How is it anybody else's business?

[msongs]

7. jewish is a religion, you can be one and 2 seconds laternot be one. as for laws about what is and

isnt making a person jewish, didnt we get rid of that mentality back in the end of the 1940's?

[Hekate]

23. Judaism is not just a religion, but an ethnic heritage with tribal elements

That can be confusing to Americans, who tend to believe that you can always choose your religion, or change your religion, whatever. Christianity has always, from the beginning, been about saying "I believe," regardless of personal/familial/ethnic heritage. Some branches require learning to recite a catechism, but American Protestantism in particular hardly even requires close study of the Bible, just baptism and "I believe."

Jews believe they are born Jews, and that is who/what they remain regardless of whether or not they become atheists, fail to keep kosher, or study Buddhism (American Buddhism has a vibrant strain of scholarship and writing by Jews). The "law" that makes being a Jew linked to one's mother is a religious/tribal law and has nothing to do with secular laws, anti-semitism, or Hitler.

My husband will never say he is not Jewish, regardless of how far he drifts from the tradition. What he studies, though, is Buddhism.

[SheilaT]

8. If he wasn't raised Jewish, or if he does not identify as Jewish,

then he's not Jewish. His mother, with all due respect, isn't the only thing here. By insisting he's Jewish just because of his mother, you start falling into the Nazi definition that anyone who had at least one Jewish grandparent was automatically Jewish and could be sent to the gas chambers.

Conversely, I'm a woman who was raised Catholic, fell away from that church in my teens, and eventually married a (Reform) Jewish man. We raised our two sons as Jews. That's how they self identify, and that's what they are, no matter their mother isn't one.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. If he says he's not Jewish....

why would the following matter?

>>> according to jewish law you are what your mother is. >>>>>

[oldandhappy]

13. He acts as if he is not much of anything.

Why is this important to you? I enjoy his show and I don't care if he is Jewish or anything else.

[DesertFlower]

18. i've been a fan as long as i can remember.

but tonight bothered me. when he said maybe people think he's jewish because of his nose. he could have said that his mother is jewish.

tonight to me was denial and disrespectful to his mother. if you can say you're dad was catholic why can't you say your mom was jewish?

i'm also an atheist but admit to being raised roman catholic.

[irisblue]

15. how he defines himself, Jew/not Jew is between him& the Deity of his choice

my mom is a full on, speaking in tongues holly roller Christian fundie, & that makes her happy. I haven't lived under her roof for near 40 yrs, so some could see me as a fundie....but I'm not. her deity, her choice.

[JI7]

16. because HE is not Jewish but i'm pretty sure he has said his mother is jewish

so he isn't denying the jewish background(which would be his mother). but that's different from saying HE is jewish since he wasn't raised as such and is not religious now .

[DesertFlower]

19. he said it in the past, but tonight

it seemed like he was denying it.

[pnwmom]

20. According to Catholic law he's just as much the religion of his father.

So it's a toss-up, and he's free to identify with any or no religion.

But who cares what religion he is? What I care about is that he's basically endorsed Rand Paul.

[Behind the Aegis]

22. It really doesn't matter in the long run.

To some, they seem as a Jew because of his stance on Islam and it makes their bigotry more palatable to attack him because he is a "Jew." While his mother is Jewish, it would mean he has Jewish ancestry in the same way I am Cherokee, though you will find many claiming being Jewish is only a religion. It is a part of who he is, but his religion was Roman Catholic and now, he has no religion.

[DesertFlower]

25. question. my sister NanceGreggs is a convert

to judaism. she converted after her children were born. had she converted before they were born would they be considered jewish?

[Behind the Aegis]

26. Offically, yes they would be Jewish had it been before their births.

There is some contention among those in Israel and even the Diaspora, though, of course, they would never be ethnically Jewish. It becomes so confusing. In the older generations, most Jews were actually Jews for centuries, but in today, with conversions, it really muddies the water. My mother converted prior to the birth of my two youngest brothers, making them Jewish, but my father and his side of the family are Jews, so they are both.

[LeftyMom]

24. Because he's not a believer? I was baptized Catholic and they count me but I don't identify

on account of not believing that God exists, Jesus was a historical person at all, let alone the son of a teenage virgin and a god, that communion wafers magically become the flesh of Jesus when you ring a bell at them etc.

The nice thing about being an adult is that you get to identify as whatever you darn well please. It's why my aunt, the daughter of a Jew and a Southern Baptist (yes, that's an unusual pairing and certainly was in the 1920s- my family is weird from way back) is the world's most stereotypical elderly Catholic lady right down to a house decorated in mass cards, Jesus paintings and crucifixes everywhere and the obligatory JFK memorial plates over the fireplace.

[ZombieHorde]

27. What is a Jew?

What is a Catholic? What is an Irish person? None of it has any value, except the value each individual chooses to add. It's pointless unless you like it or dislike it.