Once a Jew Always a Jew – Jewish Self-Hate

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14 responses

  1. Dr. Michelle Harrison says:

    I think the self-hating Jew is the Jew whose identity is partly, “I’m not like the other Jews.”
    Here in India I am “sometimes sideswiped by unexpected snide remarks about Jews.” Just as you described.

    • Sheri Oz says:

      I tend to agree with you, Michelle. I am just beginning to explore this painful topic. Sorry to hear you experience the unexpected snide remarks in India too.

  2. Steve Blowers says:

    None of asks to be born. We come into existence as a member any one of a number of countries, tribes, nations, cultural milieu, etc, etc. I see people as humans first. At Sinai, the Jews were told there is only the one God, and this God made moral demands not just on the Jews but on the whole of mankind. Mankind seeks to be free from the bonds of conscience and morality. They can’t kill the message so they have tried for millenia to kill the messenger. We are all bound by the same moral demands but as you point out, the Jews have a heavy load to bear. The nearer we come to the end of all things the heavier this load becomes.

  3. Nancy Hardin says:

    I guess I never thought of this point. But now that you mention it, it really makes me question myself. Have I ever envisioned people as their religion? Looking deep into my heart and mind I’d have to answer “probably,” and that bothers me. Sheri, my friend, I hope that I have never made you uncomfortable by anything I’ve said. If I have, I apologize and ask your forgiveness for my ignorance. I admire your writing, and thank you for sharing.

    • Sheri Oz says:

      You have never ever made me uncomfortable Nancy. I have always enjoyed and felt supported reading your comments to various things I post. Just a btw – Judaism is not a religion, it is a people and we have a religion. I think that is what makes it hard for some Christians to understand how some people can call themselves Jews and yet not believe in God. Does that make sense?

  4. Steve Blowers says:

    Sheri, I think that is where a lot of people get confused when you say Judaism is a people. With reference to my earlier point about Sinai, that was the beginning of Monotheism and it was given to the ancient Israelites. It is evident fron reading the Tanach that people often chose to reject that and run after the same idols they always had. They even did it at Sinai with the Golden calf. I get that you can be a Jew and not believe in God because that is ethnicity. The confusion for the average Joe Bloggs like me is, how can someone who is ethnically not a Jew become one by adopting the religion of the Jews – Judaism? In my view as a Christian, I believe in the same God who revealed Himself at Sinai. Does that make me a Jew? In my experience I have met with some Jews who acknowledge that I have a connection to Sinai, and they have expressed it as, ..”perhaps you were also standing at the foot of the mountain?”

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