{"id":65936,"date":"2022-02-11T15:27:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T20:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=65936"},"modified":"2022-02-11T15:27:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T20:27:09","slug":"off-the-pulpit-what-are-the-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-what-are-the-jews\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: What Are the Jews?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

Although the Nazis branded Jews an inferior race, Jews are not exactly a race. After all, one can convert to Judaism and one cannot convert to be of a different race. Yet they have some characteristics in common. Hmmm.<\/p>\n

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On the third hand, there are Jews of every skin color and from all corners of the world, so no single sweeping statement seems to work. Except\u2026<\/p>\n

Jews are a religious family. You can join family. You don\u2019t leave your family by disliking it or disagreeing with it, but you can leave it by joining another family. That is historically how Judaism has worked. Theoretically one remains a Jew, but in practice a Jew who has chosen another religion is written out of the communal compact.<\/p>\n

A religious family. That works. Not a category familiar in America, but nonetheless, that is what we are. Now, let\u2019s eat.<\/p>\n

Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

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