Faith and identity

When I was a child, I had very little knowledge about my Jewish heritage, since I grew up in a non-observant family. About all that I thought I knew about being Jewish was that it meant not believing in Jesus. After many years of learning about the history of religion, and many years of my own meandering philosophical and spiritual journey through multiple religious traditions, I find it sad that so many knowledgeable adults still have that same simplistic view of what being Jewish means.

My ethnic identity will always be Jewish, regardless of what I believe. If I believe in Jesus one day and doubt him the next, do I turn being Jewish off and on like a light switch? No, I don't think so, because being Jewish is more than a set of theological beliefs. It's being part of a people, and one can't turn that off by changing one's mind.