"been increasing in recent years. Modern Orthodox authorities have been more inclined to rule in favor of Jewish status and to accept non-Orthodox Jews' word in doubtful cases involving people claiming to be Jews, while Haredi authorities have in recent years tended to presume non-Jewish status and require more stringent rules and standards of evidence in order for Jewish status to be proven, and have tended to distrust the evidence of Jews who are not personally Orthodox. Haredi rabbis have tended to look at a convert's current personal observance and to regard deficiencies or lack of Orthodoxy in current observance"
"as Jewish a person whose mother is not Jewish, nor a convert whose conversion was not performed according to classical Jewish law. Occasionally, a Jew marries a non-Jew who believes in God as understood by Judaism, and who rejects non-Jewish theologies; Jews sometimes call such people ""ethical monotheists"". Steven Greenberg, an Orthodox Rabbi, has made the controversial proposal that, in these cases, the non-Jewish partner be considered a ""resident alien"" – the biblical description of someone who is not Jewish, but who lives within the Jewish community; according to Jewish tradition, such ""resident aliens"" share many of the same responsibilities"
"is referred to by the Hebrew word ""ger"" (, plural ""gerim"") and a female convert is a ""giyoret"". In all branches of Judaism, a ger or giyoret is considered a full Jew, the literal meaning of ""stranger,"" ""resident,"" or ""foreigner"" refers to the convert's origin, not present status. In Karaite Judaism the term ""ger"" only refers to a non-Jew who has yet to fully convert to Judaism, and once converted to Karaitism, is no longer called ""ger"". In the Talmud, ""ger"" is used in two senses: ""ger tzedek"" refers to a ""righteous convert"", a proselyte to Judaism, and ""ger toshav"","
"yourself. How dare you?"" Stewart commented that the way his critics used the term—to define who is a Jew and who is not—was formerly always done by people who weren’t Jewish. He saw this as ""more than nationalism"". Stewart also criticized right-wing Jews for implying that they are the only ones who can decide what it means to be Jewish: ""And you can’t observe (Judaism) in the way you want to observe. And I never thought that that would be coming from brethren. ... How dare they? That they only know the word of God and are the ones who"
"neighbors in this way. Shabbos goy A Shabbos goy, Shabbat goy or Shabbes goy (, ""shabbos goy"" Modern Hebrew: ""goy shel shabat"") is a non-Jew who performs certain types of work (""melakha"") which Jewish religious law (""halakha"") prohibits the Jew from doing on the Sabbath. The phrase is a combination of the word ""Shabbos"" (שבת) meaning the Sabbath, and ""goy"", which literally means ""a nation"" but colloquially means a ""non-Jew"" (in Biblical Hebrew ""goy"" means simply ""a nation"", but in Mishnaic Hebrew it is used in the sense of ""a non-national"", i.e., ""a non-Jew""). Judaism prohibits Jews from doing certain"
"Ger toshav Ger toshav ( ""ger"" ""foreigner"" or ""alien"" + ""toshav"" ""resident"", lit. ""resident alien"") is a term in Judaism for a gentile (non-Jew) living in the Land of Israel who agrees to be bound by the Seven Laws of Noah, a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of laws for the ""children of Noah"" – that is, all of humanity. A ""ger toshav"" is therefore commonly deemed a ""righteous gentile"" ( ""chassid umot ha-olam"" ""Pious People of the World""). A ""ger toshav"" is a gentile who accepts the authority"
"Shabbos goy A Shabbos goy, Shabbat goy or Shabbes goy (, ""shabbos goy"" Modern Hebrew: ""goy shel shabat"") is a non-Jew who performs certain types of work (""melakha"") which Jewish religious law (""halakha"") prohibits the Jew from doing on the Sabbath. The phrase is a combination of the word ""Shabbos"" (שבת) meaning the Sabbath, and ""goy"", which literally means ""a nation"" but colloquially means a ""non-Jew"" (in Biblical Hebrew ""goy"" means simply ""a nation"", but in Mishnaic Hebrew it is used in the sense of ""a non-national"", i.e., ""a non-Jew""). Judaism prohibits Jews from doing certain types of work, known"
"""H"" for Jewish (from the word, ""Hebrew""), or (according to at least one source) ""NO"" to indicate no religious preference. Army regulations (606-5) soon included X and Y in addition to P, C, and H: the X indicating any religion not included in the first three, and the Y indicating either no religion or a choice not to list religion. By the time of the Vietnam War, some IDs spelled out the broad religious choices such as PROTESTANT and CATHOLIC, rather than using initials, and also began to show individual denominations such as ""METHODIST"" or ""BAPTIST."" Tags did vary by"
"Gentile Gentile (from Latin , by the French ""gentil"", feminine: ""gentille"", meaning of or belonging to a clan or a tribe) is an ethnonym that commonly means non-Jew. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage sometimes use the term to describe outsiders. The term is used by English translators for the Hebrew () and () in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek word () in the New Testament. The term ""gentiles"" is derived from Latin, used for contextual translation, and not an original Hebrew or Greek word from the Bible. The original words ""goy"" and ""ethnos"" refer to ""peoples"" or ""nations"""
"Goy Long before Roman times it had also acquired the meaning of someone who is not Jewish. It is also used to refer to individuals from non-Jewish religious or ethnic groups; when used in this way in English, it occasionally has pejorative connotations and non-Jews find it disparaging. The term ""goy"" is not inherently any more or less offensive than the term gentile. As the Jews considered all of the non-Jewish nations in biblical times as polytheistic and idolatrous, the Hebrew word goy has for some time acquired the meaning ""heathen"". In a more comprehensive definition, the word goy corresponds"
"the Messiah. In any case, even when there is a Jewish king and a Sanhedrin, and all the twelve tribes live in the Land of Israel, Jewish law does not permit forcing someone to convert and become a ""ger tzedek"" against his will. Ger toshav Ger toshav ( ""ger"" ""foreigner"" or ""alien"" + ""toshav"" ""resident"", lit. ""resident alien"") is a term in Judaism for a gentile (non-Jew) living in the Land of Israel who agrees to be bound by the Seven Laws of Noah, a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding"
"term ""ethnic Jew"" does not specifically exclude practicing Jews, but they are usually simply referred to as ""Jews"" without the qualifying adjective ""ethnic"". The term can refer to people of diverse beliefs and backgrounds because genealogy largely defines who is ""Jewish"". ""Ethnic Jew"" is sometimes used to distinguish non-practicing from practicing (religious) Jews. Other terms include ""non-observant Jew"", ""non-religious Jew"", ""non-practicing Jew"", and ""secular Jew"". The term may also refer to Jews who do not practice the religion of Judaism. Typically, ethnic Jews are cognizant of their Jewish background, and may feel strong cultural (even if not religious) ties to"
"a non-Jewish inhabitant of the Land of Israel who observes the Seven Laws of Noah and has repudiated all links with idolatry. In Modern Hebrew, the unqualified term ""ger"" means ""ger tzedek"". According to Maimonides, (""Isurei Biah"" 13:14) converts were accepted since the beginning of Jewish history, and the foreign wives of Jewish leaders - such as Samson and Solomon - were converts. Yet he says (""Isurei Biah"" 13:15), that in the times of Jewish political power, such as the days of Kings David and Solomon, ""Batei Dinim"" (Jewish courts) did not accept converts who may have not had the"
"""ger"" is defined as a ""foreigner"", or ""sojourner"". Rabbi Marc Angel writes: Angel's explanation of the literal meaning of """"ger"""" as alien is borne out in biblical verses such as : Another passage which may be relevant to a process of conversion involves non-Jewish women captured in war who could be adopted forcibly as wives (). Another verse which has been interpreted as referring to non-Jews converting to Judaism is Esther 8:17, although no process is described. (). The word is rendered by the Greek ""proselyte"" as used in the Septuagint to denote a ""stranger"". A male convert to Judaism"
"included, as only his mother's father is Jewish, and he does not identify himself as Jewish. ""JSR"" researches whether or not an athlete is Jewish. In some instances, an athlete self-identifies as Jewish in an interview to a reliable news source. In other instances, the researchers contact an athlete because his surname is one that is often Jewish, or because a relative has asked for the person to be included. The athlete is asked whether or not they wish to be identified as Jewish before they are included in the Review. Some athletes are not ""obviously"" Jewish, such as former"
"Jewish outreach Jewish outreach is a term sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word kiruv or keruv (literally, ""to draw close"" or ""in-reach""). Normative Judaism does not actively seek converts, although all denominations do accept those with a sincere commitment. Outreach efforts are instead directed at Jews who have ""gone astray"", or who have been born Jewish in a non-observant family. The idea of ""Jewish outreach"" has mixed support among Jews; some are against the concept, while others share a vision of a more accessible and inclusive Jewish community. In the United States, a country with a large Secular Jewish"
"or spiritual practices. Other similar terms that have been used include: ""part-Jewish"" and ""partial-Jews"". The term ""Gershom"", ""Gershomi"" or ""Beta Gershom"" has also been used as an alternative to ""half-Jewish"" and ""part-Jewish"" in connection with descendants of intermarriage, Gershom being the son of Moses and his Midianite wife Zipporah. The term typically has no religious meaning, as terms like Jewish Christian do, but rather describes ethnic Jewry. The Society for Humanistic Judaism defines a Jew as ""someone who identifies with the history, culture and fate of the Jewish people."" In their view it is therefore possible for a non-religious individual"
"new racial antisemitism, who wanted nothing Jewish about Jesus. Houston Stewart Chamberlain posited Jesus was of Amorite-Germanic extraction. The Amorites were actually a Semitic people. Madison Grant claimed Jesus for the Nordic race. This found its most extreme form in the Nazi theology of Positive Christianity. Scholars supporting the radical Aryan view also argued that being a Jew by religion was distinguishable from being a Jew by race or ethnicity. These theories usually also include the reasoning that Jesus was Aryan because Galilee was supposedly a non-Jewish region speaking an unknown Indo-European language, but this has not gained scholarly acceptance"
"Shiksa Shiksa () is an often disparaging term for a non-Jewish woman or girl. The word, which is of Yiddish origin, has moved into English usage (as well as Polish and German), mostly in North American Jewish culture, as According to the ""Oxford English Dictionary"", it came into English usage in the late 19th century from the Yiddish ""shikse"", which is an adaptation of the Hebrew word ""šiqṣâ"", which is derived from ""sheqeṣ"" (""a detested thing"") and the feminine suffix ""-â"". Among Orthodox Jews, the term may be used to describe a Jewish girl or woman who fails to follow"
"definition of who is a Jew. For example, some individuals who would be considered Jewish under halakha are excluded from the rights under the Law of Return - e. g., those who converted to another religion; while others are entitled to immigration though they are not considered Jewish under halakha, e. g., they are related by marriage to a Jew or a grandparent may have been a Jew. A Gallup survey in 2015 determined that 65 percent of Israelis say they are either ""not religious"" or ""convinced atheists"", while 30 percent say they are ""religious"". Israel is in the middle"
"small noses for non-Jews, and the frequent appearance of rhinoplasty ""as an instrument of (attempted) Americanization"" all appear in Jewish literature as showing ""the special significance attached to the nose as a factor marking the otherness of Jews – historically, in print, on stage, and on the screen,"" writes Goldblatt. Goldblatt cites numerous examples of Jewish writers discussing the Jewish nose. ""Goyim"" (Non-Jews), writes Philip Roth in ""Portnoy's Complaint"", ""are the people for whom Nat 'King' Cole sings every Christmastime, 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose' […] 'No, no, theirs are the noses whereof"
"establishment of Israel in the past, but they contest the legitimacy of Israel as a State in the present time and the future."" Non-Zionism has also been defined in terms of a non-position on Zionism. For example, Anthony Frosh on online Jewish magazine Galus Australis, has defined a non-Zionist Jews as a Jew ""who does not have any particular political relationship (positive or negative) with the State of Israel, or at least little more of a relationship than they would have with some other 3rd party state."" Generally, those groups of Ashkenazi (Western) Haredi Jews who participate in the Israeli"
"politically, as can be seen in such publications as Mishpacha and Hamodia. Sephardi Haredi Jews may refer to themselves as Zionist. Non-Zionism Non-Zionism is the political stance of Jews who ""were [or are] willing to help support depoliticized Jewish settlement in Palestine (...) but will not come on aliyah."" The trend began in the United States in the first few decades of the 20th century when ""an increasingly large section of Americanized Jewish opinion began to shift away from anti-Zionism (...) either to pro-Zionism or non-Zionism. (...) The non-Zionists were willing to offer the fledgeling Jewish homeland fiscal and diplomatic"
"Conversion to Judaism Conversion to Judaism (, ""giyur"") is the religious conversion of non-Jews to become members of the Jewish religion and Jewish ethnoreligious community. The procedure and requirements for conversion depend on the sponsoring denomination. A conversion in accordance with the process of a denomination is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination. A formal conversion is also sometimes undertaken by individuals whose Jewish ancestry is questioned, even if they were raised Jewish, but may not actually be considered Jews according to traditional Jewish law. In some cases, a person may forgo a formal conversion to Judaism and"
"Arabist (political) As used in modern, mainly American, political discourse, the term Arabist generally refers to a non-Arab observer with experience or specialization in Arabic language and culture, who is perceived to be excessively sympathetic towards Arab political views in relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict. Accusations of bias, and the term's use as a pejorative arose in the United States where ""Arabists"" in public service, largely in the State Department, were perceived as being ""pro-Arab"" by pro-Zionist and Jewish organizations and commentators following World War II and in the run-up to the partition of Palestine. Rafael Medoff, in describing how"
"those around us."" Many Observant Jews avoid talking about valuable items they own, good luck that has come to them and, in particular, their children. If any of these are mentioned, the speaker and/or listener will say ""b'li ayin hara"" (Hebrew), meaning ""without an evil eye"", or ""kein eina hara"" (Yiddish; often shortened to ""kennahara""), ""no evil eye"". Another way to ward off the evil eye is to spit three times (or pretend to). Romans call this custom ""despuere malum,"" to spit at evil. It has also been suggested the 10th commandment: ""do not covet anything that belongs to your"
"and officials, is based upon the malicious notion that the ""Chosen People"" of the Torah and Talmud preaches ""superiority over other peoples"", as well as exclusivity. This was, of course, the principal theme of the notorious Tsarist ""Protocols of the Elders of Zion."" The word ""Goy"" literally means ""nation"" but has come to be the standard term for anyone who is not Jewish. There are claims by some groups that ""Goy"" translates to ""Animal"". These claims are designed to make people believe Jews see them as inferior. Holocaust denial consists of claims that the genocide of Jews during World War"
"the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood"". Though the laws were primarily directed against Jews, other ""non-Aryan"" people were subject to the laws, and to other legislation concerned with racial hygiene. The definition of ""Aryan"" was never fully defined as the term was too imprecise and ambiguous, it was attempted to be clarified over time in a number of judicial and executive decisions. Jews were by definition non-Aryan, because of their Semitic origins. Outside of Europe in North Africa, according to Alfred Rosenberg's racial theories (""The Myth of the Twentieth Century""), some of the Berbers, particularly the"
"applies to the following groups: The 1970 amendment was induced by the debate on ""Who is a Jew?"". Until then the law did not refer to the question. There are several explanations for the decision to be so inclusive. One is that as the Nuremberg Laws did not use a ""halakhic"" definition in its definition of ""Who is a Jew"", the Law of Return definition for citizenship eligibility is not ""halakhic"" either. Another explanation is the 1968 wave of immigration from Poland, following an antisemitic campaign by the government. These immigrants were very assimilated and had many non-Jewish family members."
"and ideas to create an even brighter Jewish tomorrow."" Jewish outreach Jewish outreach is a term sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word kiruv or keruv (literally, ""to draw close"" or ""in-reach""). Normative Judaism does not actively seek converts, although all denominations do accept those with a sincere commitment. Outreach efforts are instead directed at Jews who have ""gone astray"", or who have been born Jewish in a non-observant family. The idea of ""Jewish outreach"" has mixed support among Jews; some are against the concept, while others share a vision of a more accessible and inclusive Jewish community. In the"
"Hiloni Hiloni (), plural ""hilonim"" (), derived from the Hebrew word ""hulin"", meaning ""secular"" or ""mundane,"" is the term used in Israel for non-religious Jews, some of whom identify with Jewish secularism and secular Jewish culture. As citizens of Israel, ""hilonim"" generally speak Hebrew. As Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, many ""hilonim"" observe national holidays, such as Israel's Independence Day, and Holocaust Remembrance Day. The concept of modern-day political Zionism, in itself, was founded largely upon secular beliefs and values. Theodor Herzl, founder of the modern Zionist movement, was an assimilated Austrian Jew. At first, most of those"
"atheist"". In the world of entertainment, Woody Allen has made a career out of the tension between his Jewishness and religious doubt (""Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends""). David Silverman, president of the American Atheists since 2010, swore after his bar mitzvah that he would never again lie about not being an atheist. Jewish atheism Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Because Jewish identity encompasses ethnic as well as religious components, the term ""Jewish atheism"" does not inherently entail a"
"Epikoros Epikoros (or Apikoros or Apikores or Epicurus; Hebrew: אפיקורוס, lit. ""Heretic"", pl. Epicorsim ) is a Jewish term cited in the Mishnah, referring to one who does not have a share in the world to come: The rabbinic literature uses the term ""Epikoros"", without a specific reference to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, yet it is apparent that the term is derived from the Greek philosopher's name, a philosopher whose views contradicted Jewish scripture, the strictly monotheistic conception of God in Judaism and the Jewish belief in the world to come. The Talmudic interpretation is that the Aramaic word is"