Reply to Is the refernece "he/she looks very Jewish" benign or an insult?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Why are people so vehemently against the notion that Ashkenazi Jews are a distinct group, different from Slavs, Poles, etc.? 
[/quote]

1. Because people have tried to kill us because of that. Kinda makes you want to talk about it with caution

2. Because some people (both Jews and non Jews) have used it in "friendly" but also morally (and scientifically) questionable ways - see the debate over Ashkenazi intelligence

3. Because its not 100% accurate - there is genetic evidence, IIUC, that Ashkenazi Jews are similar genetically other European origin Sephardim.

4.  Because (as point 3 shows) there is room for confusion between "ethnic" Ashkenazim (where ethnic is a euphemism for racial, rather than a cultural marker), ethnic ashkenazim in the shared culture and recent origin sense (which would include people long assimilated into ashkenazi culture whatever their DNA/appearance etc), cultural ashkenazim (which would include anyone currently participating in Ashkenazi culture, which includes both many Jews by Choice and SOME sephardic origin people in America, and excludes people of Ashkenazi background who have little or no Ashkenazi culture)  and religious ashkenazim - IE people who follow Ashkenazi rites/minhags, regardless of secular culture.

Note this last is the way the term has been used for hundreds of years among Jews, and in most traditional Jewish sources. [/quote]

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