What is the criteria for being Jewish? What does it mean to be Jewish? When looking at Judaism, one has to go far back to biblical times to fully understand its origins. It started with the Hebrew people in the country of Israel. The bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is what constitutes people as being Jewish. Being classified as a Jew, or a Jewish citizen has more to do with family ties, then what you believe in. The standard for being considered Jewish is that you have to be born to a Jewish mother.
Some sects of Judaism like to include being born to a Jewish father as part of being Jewish. It can be looked at as more of a nationality or an ethnicity than a religion. In most sects of Judaism, a non- Jew can go through the process of conversion. This would mean that they are now recognized as a Jew, but to many Jewish born people, they do not consider converts as actual Jews. Being Jewish means that you acknowledge the history, and the struggle of the Jewish people as a nation. Not just the past, but sharing hopes for Israel in the future, and participating in their customs. B.
Can anything disqualify a Jewish person who wishes to be called a Jew from continuing to be Jewish? The Torah is a form of Jewish law, and Orthodox Jews, unlike other sects strictly follow its teachings. The Torah forbids a Jewish man from marrying a Gentile woman (non-Jew), because his children by that woman will not be Jewish. When looking at other sects of Judaism who are not so strict with the Torah the children would be considered Jewish. Depending on how you interpret the law, children born to a Jewish father and a Gentile woman could not be considered Jewish. According to the law they are not.
One has to live within the law to gain the inheritance. C. Are there Jews who do not believe in God and do not practice Jewish customs? Does believing in atheism, pantheism or monism disqualify a person born in Jewish family from being Jewish? Some Jews who survived the holocaust became atheists but are still called Jewish by many. Are they still Jewish? Along with being Jewish, and following the customs, comes the inheritance that God promised his children, or the Israelites. There are conflicting views on whether or not a Jewish born person who abandons their customs would still be noninsured Jewish.
Looking at it from a logical point of view without involving any Jewish law, yes they still are Jewish. Maybe not by religiously, but ethnically they are. Rumba, a scholar who changed Judaism stated that people who have atheist, pantheist, or monist views would still be considered Jewish if born into the religion. When looking at the Torah, they are not considered Jewish, because they engaged in pagan beliefs, and can no longer share in the inheritance of the children of Israel. Holocaust survivors in my opinion are most definitely Jewish, hey suffered for what they believed in, and they just lost hope.
D. If a Jew is born Jewish, follows Jewish rituals and customs, but they believe in anyone as a Messiah (for example, Lubricity – Brooklyn Messiah), is that person Jewish? This question is not just about Jesus, it pertains to a host of other persons who were supposed to be the Messiah (not just Jesus). Believing in a messiah, does not make someone not Jewish. The traditional Jewish belief is that a king from the line of David would be the messiah. Jesus came along, and claimed to be the king of the Jews, but they did not believe him.
Jesus did not fit the criteria to be the son of God, who would deliver the Israelites. Many Jews still believe that their messiah has yet to come back. Those who believe in Lubricity saw Robber as the messiah, but as long as they do not pray to Robber or consider Robber as a God then there is no problem. They still practice within the Jewish faith, and they have not adopted outside rituals, that go against Jewish law. E. Do an internet search on Simenon Bar Kebab and Give Shabbiest and Lubricity Hashish’s. Did the Jews who believed in these movements continue to be considered Jewish?
Those who followed Bar Kebab, Shabbiest TTS, and Alluvial strongly believed that they were the messiah. These people were rabbis, many of the Jewish faith strongly believed in the words that they were saying. They truly thought that they were the messiah. Many Jewish people still consider those who followed Bar Kebab and Shabbiest Give are still Jewish. They are called kidnapped or misguided children. They should not lose their inheritance, and not be considered Jewish. The same does not go for Lubricity, those who followed him are said to be a disgrace to the Jewish faith.
