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In relation to the Topic Of The Day, at least on my feed, I have some thoughts about this.
When I first started wanting to reconnect to Judaism and Jewishness I had a *lot* of anxiety and imposter syndrome, and as a result I leaned very heavily on my ancestral connection. https://twitter.com/JustSayXtian/status/1275796587877412864">https://twitter.com/JustSayXt...
When I first started wanting to reconnect to Judaism and Jewishness I had a *lot* of anxiety and imposter syndrome, and as a result I leaned very heavily on my ancestral connection. https://twitter.com/JustSayXtian/status/1275796587877412864">https://twitter.com/JustSayXt...
Even if I messed stuff up, I rationalized to myself, even if I was embarrassed about not knowing the words to bless children, or when to bow and when to raise my toes, or how to read Hebrew, or when to say & #39;amen& #39; it was okay for me to be there because I was *ethnically Jewish*.
The two things I& #39;ve been talking about today - that there is no one right way to do Jewish, and that every Jew is ethnically Jewish - are related for me in my personal immersion into my Jewish self.
I think a *lot* of us are self-conscious about our authenticity. A *lot* of us wish we were more secure in our Jewishness than we feel. A *lot* of us are just waiting for someone to pop out from behind a loaf of challah and demand that we prove we& #39;re *really* Jewish.
And because of that, it can be comforting to point to a 23&Me report and say & #39;See?? I& #39;m ETHNICALLY JEWISH, so I belong, here& #39;s proof.& #39; And if you don& #39;t have that heritage to point to, I bet the pressure to prove your bona fides is super intense.
The problem is, that isn& #39;t what an ethnicity is, and that isn& #39;t what makes someone authentic. That 23&Me report doesn& #39;t prove anything except that if you& #39;re having a kid your doctor will probably want to run some extra tests. That isn& #39;t what makes someone Jewish.
The good news is, none of us actually have to prove anything. It isn& #39;t required. There& #39;s no one just waiting for the opportunity to make sure the people who don& #39;t make the cut are evicted from the hall of study. But the *fear* of that can make some very toxic environments.
Which is why it& #39;s important to me to be unyielding on affirming that all Jewish practice is valid. All Jewish experience is authentically and completely Jewish. All Jews are equally a member of Am Yisrael, the Peoplehood of Jews, which is all an ethnicity is.
