Definition Of "Jewish" For Christians

When I worked for the Rabbi's wife, I was given the title: Honorary Jew. Whatever that meant, I still don't know, but in my experience working for primarily Jewish employers, I've learned a thing or two about what makes one "A Jew", or "Jewish".

When I was 18, and working for my first Jewish family as a nanny, I came in with the idea that Jewish people were the direct descendents of Shem. I thought "Jewish" meant "Judean" and therefore was a term used to describe anyone with relatives from this location. Therefore, Jesus was a Jew, and everyone in the christian churches agreed.

In a discussion over the kitchen table I quickly learned this was an offensive idea to my employers. Jesus was NOT a Jew in their eyes--he was a traitor to the Jewish faith. Being a Jew to them didn't depend upon the location of origin, it depended upon faith. Anyone, from any ethnic background, they said, could convert and become a Jew, as the wife and mother of this household had done. She had been Roman Catholic and converted to become a Jew.

Jewishness is passed down through the mother, not the father, from the Jewish perspective. If the mother was descended from a Jewish mother, she was Jewish, and her children as well. For a man to keep the Jewish line up, he has to marry a Jewess, because, again, the line is passed down through the mother. This is also an incentive to marry within the faith.

However, if your mother is Jewish but you don't follow the faith, you're still considered Jewish, if you're a woman. It may go back to the idea that somewhere, waaaay back, you could be connected to the actual bloodline.

From the Orthodox Jewish perspective, more emphasis is made as to what "type" of Jew you are: Ashkenazi or Sephardic. The Ashkenazi Jews are mainly Europeans who converted to Judaism, and applies to most Americans who convert. The Orthodox Sephardic line is from Mediterranean stock, and believed to have the actual DNA and bloodline of the original Jewish/Israeli tribes. This is important to the Sephardic, because they believe the tabernacle will be rebuilt and the priesthood restored to the line of Aaron, and that this bloodline is necessary to prove.

Having someone Jewish somewhere back in the bloodline doesn't automatically make some Jewish. I thought it had to do with ancestry and thought perhaps I had a fraction of the Jewish heritage because of some Jewish captain in the family line whose Jewish family bible was destroyed in a fire at home in Virginia (my paternal grandmother told me about this in hushed tones: "We're Jewish" she said, but really, we're not). It doesn't mean anything, because the guy was on my father's side, not my mother's side. The tradition or assignment of "Jewish" will follow someone though, if the mother of the person has carried the line, either through faith/tradition or actual genetics to an ancient tribe.

When Christians say Jesus is Jewish, on the other hand, they say this because of his lineage, born in Israel. Technically too, if his mother was Jewish, he would be as well. I guess it holds up until one converts or claims they are the Son of God or something else happens.

Then too, I know the Reform Jewish church is more tolerant of various definitions of Jewish. One employer I had came from a Jewish family, and he went to synagogue, but his wife wasn't Jewish and didn't convert. So he was Jewish but maybe his children were not? because the mother wasn't? unless they went through a formal conversion process?

I suppose someone else could clarify better, but this is what I've learned over the years.