Reposting from a Tumblr argument about how “leftists” only accept nonreligious Jews.

[feotakahari]

And I’m blocked now. Not surprising, I suppose.

Honestly, I don’t have nearly as much against Judaism as I do against some other religions. A lot of the things Jewish writers say seem to me like good things, or at least unobjectionable. I just don’t like the two-step between “it’s a religion” and “if you criticize it, you’re racist.” I could not care less who your mother was. It’s philosophy I argue about, not anything to do with “blood,” and I hate to see someone dodge out of the way so their philosophy can’t be criticized.

(There’s this one Jewish blogger I read sometimes who refers to Jesus as “Oily Josh” and openly hates him. I think every creed should be vulnerable to that level of criticism, and if you hate my saying that, I applaud you.)

Comments

[entanglingbriars]

The question of who is and isn't a Jew is enormously complicated and has been since at least the end of captivity in Babylon. But wrt conversion, it's not really an accurate term, "adoption" would be closer to what it means for someone to "convert" to Judaism.

You're probably going to be fine criticizing the ethics of giving babies herpies. Where it gets a bit more complicated is the ethics of circumcision more generally or of the nature of kosher slaughter. It's very difficult to separate condemnation of those practices from condemnation of the Jewish people for political reasons that are entirely separate from an ethical consideration.

[feotakahari]

I don’t have a position on circumcision, but surely there are penis-owning people who have Jewish ancestors and aren’t circumcised. You could say it’s a matter of Jewish culture instead, but this is a culture hateblog. I grew up learning all the reasons American culture is morally bankrupt, and I refuse to believe there exists a culture less deserving of scorn.

Edit: a lot of this comes from my whole “if it’s good for fathers to beat their sons, then it’s good for sons to beat their fathers” thing. I don’t like the idea of putting any one group in a higher position than others. The ways in which I’m respectful at all are the ways in which I think everyone should be respected.