(Jewish Group) How many Jews live in the U.S.? That depends on how you define Jewish.

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

Adolf Hitler wanted to eliminate the Jewish people, and his regime murdered 6 million in pursuit of that goal.

Thousands of Jews fled to the United States and Israel during and after the Holocaust, if they could manage to make it to these relative safe havens. Now, more than 80 percent of the world’s Jewish population lives in those two countries, and the American Jewish population has grown substantially in number since the end of World War II.

The Jewish People Policy Institute estimated that the global Jewish population was nearing pre-Holocaust numbers a couple of years ago, in part because of “changing patterns of Jewish identification.” But that finding was challenged because of the study’s broad definition of “Jewish.”

Like most things in Judaism, there’s disagreement. Here’s how two major scholars define Jewishness:

•Steven Cohen, a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem, defines a Jew as “anybody who considers him or herself Jewish with some evidence of having Jewish familial ties or having affirmatively switched their identities by conversion or self-identification.” He says that being Jewish is not a religion but “a culture, an ancestry. Most practice Judaism, some don’t practice it at all and some practice other religions.”

•Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Sergio DellaPergola defines the more narrow “core Jewish population” as those who are Jewish only or Jewish by identity, even if they are not religiously Jewish, as long as they practice no other religions. But he also calculates estimates for a more expansive group: those with Jewish parents, those partially Jewish, those with Jewish backgrounds and those who qualify under the “Law of Return” — any person born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism without another Jewish identity.

more...

[Mosby]

1. This is an interesting topic

But one that is hard to talk about.

[EllieBC]

2. This is the kind of thing we (not you and I specifically but I mean we who are Jewish)

can talk and argue about for years.

And agreed, it's a hard topic.

[MosheFeingold]

3. Being a product of WWII

I tend to follow David Ben Gurion's definition politically: anyone dumb enough to declare themselves Jewish, is Jewish.

Being Orthodox, I have both a narrower (Orthodox conversion, maternal only) and wider (maternal line means you are Jewish, regardless of what you believe) definition.

In particular, now being a Stranger in a Strange Land (a German Jew, raised in NYC, in the wilds of New Mexico), I have come across any number of the old ranching families (both Anglo and Hispanic) who are maternally Jewish, but (generally unhappily) practice Roman Catholicism.

I see a large well of potential not-so-much-converts, but reverts, in the American Southwest.

Ancestry.com (and equivalent) have helped a lot in this regard.

The Chabad Shul in El Paso has a number.

[MosheFeingold]

5. Well dang Mosby

Now you've got me all curious what you said and thought better of.

[Mosby]

7. sorry

I shared some personal info in that post, and decided to delete it. It had nothing to do with you.

[mucifer]

6. One of my coworkers really seemed Jewish to me. She is half Puerto Rican

She suspected her Puerto Rican grandparents were Conversos. She did ancestry.com and found out she was right. She is half Jewish on her mother's side. Her grandparents are no longer alive. Half of her Puerto Rican extended family thinks that's great. The other half is pissed at her.