I was once asked by a Christian believer whether I considered myself a Jewish American or an American Jew? Not long after, I was asked by another Christian, “What’s a Jew?”, in reply to my query regarding the Jews being the Chosen People. Both questions were appropriate and provocative, and interestingly enough, my wife and I immigrated (made aliyah) within a year of those questions.
Whether the debate is about authentic Jewish thought, the Law of Return, legitimate Jewish faith and religion, valid conversions, the status and relevance of the Bible, or even anti-missionary activities, the answer to “What/Who is a Jew?” remains elusive. Who has ultimate sovereign authority to say? By our own internal quarreling and judgments, both within the State of Israel and in the dispersion abroad, we, the children of Israel, give credence to the New Testament Christian understanding (who have similar crises of defining identity and belonging) that not all Israel is of Israel, and not all of Abraham’s natural descendants through Isaac and Jacob are truly Jews/Israelis.
My own answer to the two questions I was asked — “I’m a Jew!” — was no more conclusive than those being given now in the nation’s search for true identity with integrity. What is it that makes a person a Jew, and not merely Jew-ish? One does not necessarily have to be a Jew in the full sense in order to do things ‘Jewishly’, especially when living in Israel.
I once heard a Talmud teacher answer a question I put to him following a public lecture that to seek the truth is a mitzvah (a commandment; a good deed), but to find it is a sin! Please, let us not so dishonor the God of our fathers with such vain and futile unbelief.