- Dec 26, 2013
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The best any of us can do is to say that it's 'a mix of ethnicity, heredity, culture, tradition, place, and in many cases religion'. That's what several of us have written on this thread, in remarkably similar language, but we're still being challenged to 'define' ourselves. How that mixture of ethnicity, religion, etc., is apportioned in each person is diverse and I can't see why people won't just accept that and settle for a broad, inclusive definition
Everyone's identity is a mix of ethnicity, heredity, culture, tradition, place and religion. But that mixture is so diverse, as you say, that the spectrum that potentially includes a Jew, or a black person, or a Dutchman, or LGBTQI people is so large that almost anyone who chooses to place themselves there could do so. People ask you to define Jewishness, because they feel it's almost undefinable and I think maybe it is - it's a subjective take on all the many factors you list above. It is a really hard thing for me to get my head around your use of the word 'us' and 'ourselves' and 'we'. I can't place myself amongst an 'us' - i.e. me and my fellow jews. Or, me and my fellow black people. Maybe that's because I don't belong to a defined group in the same way that you do: I'm half-British, half-Dutch at my parents level, I've a Spanish Jewish grandmother going back one more and an Italian baker one further. My ancestors weren't persecuted as a whole but I'm sure they experienced their fair share of shit, as have I.
Most of us are that severely bastardised. My cultural influences are mostly British, partly Dutch and a little American (born in 1980: MTV, right?). I would be offended if someone I didn't know called me a **** but if they called me a half Dutch **** I'm not sure I'd be able to care. I am aware that Jews have suffered at the hands way more than the half-Dutch btw, so even though that sounded facetious, it was not supposed to.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to say here Other than don't be offended by what people say about your people's place on the spectrum of ethnicity, heredity, culture, tradition, place and religion. Be offended by what they say about you. I know that wouldn't have worked in Europe in 1939 (for the record my Dutch Grandfather was killed by the Nazis for hiding from the Nazis even though he wasn't Jewish, it annoys me that I'm even feeling the need to say that. Why?) but this isn't then. I'm aware that people are still abused terribly for being jewish.
The reason I think David Baddiel is wrong about the word 'yid' is that Spurs fans singing it from the rooftops shits all over the the word: it says "fuck you" to all those idiots who think they want to slag off Jews even though they don't really know what Jews are. But it also says: "we're not really Jews so go fuck yourselves even though we don't know really know what Jews are". It detracts from the concept of race, ethnicity, religion etc... It epitomises the insanity of 'us' in general
But, anyway...happy new year. I'm quite pissed.