Is Judaism a racist religion?

[Rebiu]

Is Judaism a racist religion?

[Boerseun]

No. The only quality you need to qualify as a "Jew", is to profess that you are, indeed, a Jew. There are Jews from Asia, Jews from Ethiopia (there are actually a big discussion amongst the bigwigs in Judaism that the Ethiopian Jews are actually the oldest branch, closest to the original sons of Abraham genetically - and they are pitch black).

 

There are, however, internal divisions that also transcend skin colour, which might be more discriminative: Whether you are a sephardim Jew or a... a... the word escapes me now. I'll get to it. And it's mostly the sephardim that gets the government jobs in Israel, etc. There are a lot of issues regarding this, but it has nothing to do with skin colour.

 

BUT - what's your take on it? You can't just make a hit & run post like this. Do YOU think its a racist religion? And if so, why?

[coldcreation]

Is Judaism a racist religion?

Religions are not racist, people are.

[ughaibu]

What does that mean? There are no religions without people.

[Rebiu]

Thanks for the info

BUT - what's your take on it? You can't just make a hit & run post like this. Do YOU think its a racist religion? And if so, why?

I was under the impression that anyone could convert and was rebuked without explanation on another forum. I have not found any information on it yet.

[Rebiu]

What would the idea that followers of a religion should be treated different of are better than nonbeleivers be called?

[CraigD]

Prior to researching it for this post, I, too believed that Judaism, as is typical of many small religions (at 14 million, or about 0.2% of the world population, Judaism is slightly smaller that Spiritism, a religion that neither I nor my spell-checker had ever heard of) was a moderately “closed” religion that one must either marry or be born into.

 

According to becomingajew.org’s article “conversion process”, this does not appear to be the case. However, despite the openness this article suggests, I’m suspicious that “step 6: talk to a rabbi” may be a veiled social filter. Is there any requirement that the rabbi you talk to not simply say “I’m sorry, but you cannot become a Jew”, especially if you happen to be a Palestinian youth seeking Israeli citizenship, or of some other traditionally non-Jewish ethnic group?

 

”Conversion controversy”, which is linked to by the begomingajew.org article, appears to support my suspicion. I get the impression, beginning with its subtitle, “Kansas City rabbi quests to convert ‘lost’ Sephardic Jews”, that in order to be acceptable for conversion to Judaism, one must be able to make a reasonable claim to being descendent of a “lost” tribe of ancient Israel. The necessity of making such a claim suggest to me that, subject to the arbitration of a rabbi (who may have his own opinion about the “openness” of his religion), Judaism may be accurately described as a “racist religion”.

[Rebiu]

Prior to researching it for this post, I, too believed that Judaism, as is typical of many small religions (at 14 million, or about 0.2% of the world population, Judaism is slightly smaller that Spiritism, a religion that neither I nor my spell-checker had ever heard of) was a moderately “closed” religion that one must either marry or be born into.

 

According to becomingajew.org’s article “conversion process”, this does not appear to be the case. However, despite the openness this article suggests, I’m suspicious that “step 6: talk to a rabbi” may be a veiled social filter. Is there any requirement that the rabbi you talk to not simply say “I’m sorry, but you cannot become a Jew”, especially if you happen to be a Palestinian youth seeking Israeli citizenship, or of some other traditionally non-Jewish ethnic group?

 

”Conversion controversy”, which is linked to by the begomingajew.org article, appears to support my suspicion. I get the impression, beginning with its subtitle, “Kansas City rabbi quests to convert ‘lost’ Sephardic Jews”, that in order to be acceptable for conversion to Judaism, one must be able to make a reasonable claim to being descendent of a “lost” tribe of ancient Israel. The necessity of making such a claim suggest to me that, subject to the arbitration of a rabbi (who may have his own opinion about the “openness” of his religion), Judaism may be accurately described as a “racist religion”.

Thanks for the great information.

[Rebiu]

This article says four generations of maternal Jewish parentage is required by Israel. Racist Israel

[Rebiu]

Here are a few examples of racism in the talmud I found Here

 

"The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts."

Talmud: Baba mezia, 114b

 

"The Akum (non-Jew) is like a dog. Yes, the scripture teaches to honor the the dog more than the non-Jew."

Ereget Raschi Erod. 22 30

 

"Even though God created the non-Jew they are still animals in human form. It is not becoming for a Jew to be served by an animal. Therfore he will be served by animals in human form."

Midrasch Talpioth, p. 255, Warsaw 1855

 

"The souls of non-Jews come from impure sprits and are called pigs."

Jalkut Rubeni gadol 12b

 

"If a Jew has a non-Jewish servant or maid who dies, one should not express sympathy to the Jew. You should tell the Jew: "God will replace 'your loss', just as if one of his oxen or asses had died"."

Jore dea 377, 1

 

"Sexual intercourse between Gentiles is like intercourse between animals."

Talmud Sanhedrin 74b

 

"It is permitted to take the body and the life of a Gentile."

Sepher ikkarim III c 25

 

"It is the law to kill anyone who denies the Torah. The Christians belong to the denying ones of the Torah."

Coschen hamischpat 425 Hagah 425. 5

 

"A heretic Gentile you may kill outright with your own hands."

Talmud, Abodah Zara, 4b

 

"Every Jew, who spills the blood of the godless (non-Jews), is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God."

Talmud: Bammidber raba c 21 & Jalkut 772

[ughaibu]

One of my cousins became jewish. I dont remember her having any difficulties, maybe she had to study some texts and pass an oral exam, I dont know. On the other hand, if a person feels jewish, I dont suppose there are bouncers on the synagogue doors, and come to that, I had a friend expelled from his church, does that make christianity a "racist" religion?

If a person wants to follow a particular religion, how can anybody stop them?

[Boerseun]

This is me speaking, so if I offend anybody in saying this, don't blame Hypo.

 

Any religion that you'd care to mention is based on a flawed premise. But the scope of what they stand for, and the 'benefits' of believing in any specific religion and the 'penalties' in not doing so is eternal, and all-encompassing. Or so they say.

 

What they fight for are the souls and loyalties of believers, to gain new ones and to retain those that they already have. They simply have to describe those outside their specific religion as of being of a lower class, or even as being slightly less human, if only to retain those believers (income base) that they already have.

 

In this specific sense, you can probably describe religions as exclusive, and discriminating, but clearly not racist. Racism is discrimination based on race, a physical quality. But I know Jews of all colours, Muslims of all colours, and Christians of all colours.

 

These religions are all ridiculous and based on false premises. But in order to hide their own failures, be it of the logical or consistency kind, they tend to focus more on the failures and discrepancies of other religions and beliefs. So, eventually (as in the Torah quotes above) you'll start asking yourself: "Right, I'm a Jew, and there are lots of faults and problems with my religion that my rabbi can't or won't discuss with me, but at least I am human! Imagine - I could've been a Christian or a Muslim, and then I would forfeit my soul and become nothing more than a mere animal!"

 

This is discriminating, but it is definitely and clearly not racist.

 

Good quote I heard the other day: (slightly off topic)

"Before asking me why I dismiss your religion, ask yourself first why are you dismissing so many?"

[C1ay]

What does that mean? There are no religions without people.

It is people that make religion though so a racist religion is only racist because of it's followers.

[ughaibu]

In short, there is a "racist religion".

[Southtown]

Might I suggest Karaite Judaism? They adhere to the non-racist ancient scriptures and refrain from whimsically adding to or subtracting from it. And might I also suggest not submitting to any religion that is subject to whimsical altercation?

[Igby]

Originally posted by ughaibu:

I dont suppose there are bouncers on the synagogue doors

Larger synagogues often have bouncers on Shabbat. The Great Synagogue in Sydney has bouncers outside the main entrance during Synagogue, and the Friday night Passover services are members only. This is annoying and seems elitist, but it's just to prevent over-crowding in the synagogue, which is in the center of the CBD.

 

I'd be interested to know which kind of Judaism Rebiu thinks is racist? All of them? Just Orthodox? Reform? Liberal? Hasidic? Conservative?

 

Our Torah and Talmud were written by men, and hence are bound to contain prejudicial idiosyncracies of some form. The Torah, Talmud, Bible and Koran all contain xenophobic, sexist, homophobic sentiments. Chinese Buddhism paints homosexuality as a cardinal sin, and the Catholic church hates condoms. It's patently ignorant to attempt to define a religion by the intolerance of some. People generally do not join a religion so they can have an excuse for their intolerance. Bigotry is human, and religion is man-made. But the fact that these two things are human does not necessarily imply that they are tied together.

 

For most of the Jews I know, these batshit insane notions are ignored. None of them think menstruating women are unclean, and have no place within the synagogue. None of them call their collegues beasts by virtue of the fact that they're a gentile. None of them are in favour of murdering dirty heathens, and nor are they apathetic whenever they hear of dead gentiles.

 

All religious texts have hateful elements. Rebiu, why single out Judaism?

[HydrogenBond]

I going to walk on eggshells with this one but here goes. If religion is manmade, as many aetheist and scientists believe, and the Jews consider themselves the chosen people because of the bible, then a manmade claim is being used for racist superiority. On other other hand, if the bible is the word of God, the Jews are merely going along with a choice that was made by God.