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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My Dad’s ethnically Jewish but an atheist.  I have been told:

1) I am not Jewish bc my mother is not a Jewish
2) I am Jewish bc Hitler would have sent me to a death camp and I self hate bc I do not say I’m Jewish.  
3) of course I am not Jewish but I am Russian  (this is my Dad’s PoV, he is of Ukrainian Jewish ancestry btw)

To be honest I cannot figure this out. All I know is I do not believe in God and think that religion has caused way too much death over the centuries.  [/quote]

If your father is 100% ethnically Jewish, then you are at least 50% ethnically Jewish.  Nothing can change your DNA.  It's not a belief system.  Also, nothing can make you identify as Jewish if you choose not to.

Jewish religious groups (like synagogues) would say you aren't entitled to claim membership in the Jewish religion (and do Jewish religious-y stuff) because your mother was not Jewish.  However, most would welcome you happily and let you have a bar mitzvah or whatever if you'll jump through a few religious hoops, which they have a convenient program for.

What Hitler would have done is no longer relevant, as he's dead and you don't live in Nazi Germany.

Russians would say you are not Russian because you are Jewish, but would completely understand if you chose to call yourself Russian and not mention the Jewish part, as they wouldn't want to be Jewish either (they legit hate Jews in Russia). At one time, Soviet passports identified Jewish people as Jewish rather than Russian, but since that practice stopped, many Russian Jews simply stopped mentioning it and "became" Russian in order to avoid persecution and discrimination. Many Americans have done the same thing over the years, as well as many other Jews throughout history who had the option to do so.

So the answer is that you are descended from at least some members of the ancient semitic tribe, but are not under any obligation to talk about it.

[/quote]

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