"You Don't Have to Be Jewish"
Jun. 3rd, 2014 08:22 amSometimes when I mention something anti-semitic that happened to me to a gentile, I get the response that is the title of this essay. If it’s so bad, why do you stay Jewish? I’ve even been told that anti-Semitism isn’t real oppression, because after all, I can stop being Jewish any time I like. Well.
Let’s pretend for just a moment that it isn’t dehumanizing at all to ask someone to strip themselves of their cultural, religious, and ethnic identity in exchange for basic respect. Let’s pretend that forced and coerced assimilation hasn’t been used as tools of oppression , and that this hasn’t let deep cultural wounds in people all over the world. Let’s pretend that our culture isn’t something valuable to us. Let’s pretend that after thousands and thousands of years of gentiles trying to do away with our irritating Jewishness through mass murder and forced conversions it isn’t horribly offensive to suggest Jews give up that Jewishness to be tolerated. Let’s pretend that every Jewish person has the ability to up and move at a moment’s notice to somewhere where no one has ever met them or knows that they were “once a Jew” since after all, in the minds of many, former Jews are just as bad as current ones. Let’s pretend all of that for the sake of this essay and ask, would it work?
( In which I ramble about my family history back five generations. warning for anti-Semitic slurs and also some discription of racism against blacks. Short version, it doesn't work. )
Let’s pretend for just a moment that it isn’t dehumanizing at all to ask someone to strip themselves of their cultural, religious, and ethnic identity in exchange for basic respect. Let’s pretend that forced and coerced assimilation hasn’t been used as tools of oppression , and that this hasn’t let deep cultural wounds in people all over the world. Let’s pretend that our culture isn’t something valuable to us. Let’s pretend that after thousands and thousands of years of gentiles trying to do away with our irritating Jewishness through mass murder and forced conversions it isn’t horribly offensive to suggest Jews give up that Jewishness to be tolerated. Let’s pretend that every Jewish person has the ability to up and move at a moment’s notice to somewhere where no one has ever met them or knows that they were “once a Jew” since after all, in the minds of many, former Jews are just as bad as current ones. Let’s pretend all of that for the sake of this essay and ask, would it work?
( In which I ramble about my family history back five generations. warning for anti-Semitic slurs and also some discription of racism against blacks. Short version, it doesn't work. )