Jew by merit. Looking for a good term to use.

[takebackourtemple]

This is a side note that I wrote on another thread. Please feel free to repsond to it here.

"   On a side note:
   I mixed up religion and ethnicity in this response only because Arab muslims discriminate against non-arab mulsims. I want to point out that a Jew is a Jew regardless of ethnicity. I'm making up a new term "Jew by merit" to distinguish between those who choose to be Jewish by choice and those who are born Jewish but are not Jewish by choice. Please don't reply to this side note. I will create a new thread for this discussion. "

   I thought about using "Jew in good standing" but that implies someone else's choice like that of a rabbi and can get very political. I thought about "Jew by choice" but hashem chooses for all Jews to be Jewish whether they want to or not. Some people might also choose to say they are Jewish by ethnicity but not practice the religion. I disagree with a religion being an ethnicity. Even though some religions might not accept certain ethnicities, Judiasm is not one of them.

[SoldierOfZion]

I like the term coined by Sha'i ben-Tekoa of Deprogramming Program:
"Jewish anti-Jews"

I highly encourage JTFers to subscribe to his show - it's WELL worth the price!
http://deprogramprogram.com

I have lots of clips on my audios page (look for DPP):
http://www.somebodyhelpme.info/audios/audios.html

[SoldierOfZion]

I like the term coined by Sha'i ben-Tekoa of Deprogramming Program:
"Jewish anti-Jews"

I highly encourage JTFers to subscribe to his show - it's WELL worth the price!
http://deprogramprogram.com

I have lots of clips on my audios page (look for DPP):
http://www.somebodyhelpme.info/audios/audios.html

Here are a couple examples of his use of the term:

Jewish anti-Jews write for Haaretz
http://www.somebodyhelpme.info/DPP/05-31-06_Jewish_anti-Jews_write_for_Haaretz.mp3

Madeline Albright - anti-Jew Jewess
http://www.somebodyhelpme.info/DPP/06-04-06-Madeline_Albright-anti-Jew_Jewess.mp3

[Fruit of thy loins]

Many old Almanacs, encyclopedias and other sources of mainstream information right up until the 1960s continued to refer to the Jews as a ‘race’.  This tendency in the ‘West’ only disappeared after the Civil Rights movement.  Some Rabbis have in common with Nazis a belief that Jews are not white.  Being ‘white’ is overwhelmingly a social and cultural thing.  ‘White’ people who don’t act white are routinely ostracized from ‘white’ company, thus the origin of such phrases as ‘you’re a waste of skin’ or the more explicit ‘some people don’t deserve to be white’.

Nowadays we even see suave, sophisticated blacks being called ‘white’.  White women accept these men into their company and make them part of the white, socially-constructed community.

A person who is not born a Jew can only be a ‘Jew’ in the sense that his adopted community make him one, because he was not born one, and never can really become one in the biological sense.  Although my Stone Edition Tanakh informs me that raison d’etre of the Jewish people, the cornerstone of their nationhood, is the Torah: so anyone has the potential to become a second-rate proselyte.

[Sarah]

So the term "Jewish" is a race not just a religion?
Does this mean that a person who believes in christianity, can still be a Jew because of their biological jewish race passed on by blood.
This is very interesting.

[SoldierOfZion]

So the term "Jewish" is a race not just a religion?
Does this mean that a person who believes in christianity, can still be a Jew because of their biological jewish race passed on by blood.
This is very interesting.

I think this site states things accurately:
http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm

Here's the relevant part:
Who is a Jew?

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.

It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship. See What Is Judaism?

This has been established since the earliest days of Judaism. In the Torah, you will see many references to "the strangers who dwell among you" or "righteous proselytes" or "righteous strangers." These are various classifications of non-Jews who lived among Jews, adopting some or all of the beliefs and practices of Judaism without going through the formal process of conversion and becoming Jews. Once a person has converted to Judaism, he is not referred to by any special term; he is as much a Jew as anyone born Jewish.

Although all Jewish movements agree on these general principles, there are occasional disputes as to whether a particular individual is a Jew. Most of these disputes fall into one of two categories.

First, traditional Judaism maintains that a person is a Jew if his mother is a Jew, regardless of who his father is. The liberal movements, on the other hand, consider a person to be Jewish if either of his parents was Jewish and the child was raised Jewish. Thus, if the child of a Jewish father and a Christian mother is raised Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the Reform movement, but not according to the Orthodox movement. On the other hand, if the child of a Christian father and a Jewish mother is not raised Jewish, the child is a Jew according to the Orthodox movement, but not according to the Reform movement! The matter becomes even more complicated, because the status of that children's children also comes into question.

Second, the more traditional movements do not always acknowledge the validity of conversions by the more liberal movements. The more modern movements do not always follow the procedures required by the more traditional movements, thereby invalidating the conversion. In addition, Orthodoxy does not accept the authority of Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis to perform conversions, and the Conservative movement has debated whether to accept the authority of Reform rabbis.