Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 09:33     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So, I thought I was of Polish/Czech Catholic ancestry, but my at-home DNA test indicates 99% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

By Jewish law, does this mean I am "officially" Jewish? I was raised Catholic and know nothing about the religion. (But am going to research, as I'm interested in knowing my family's story).


If your mother is Jewish (meaning her mother was Jewish), then by Jewish law you can consider yourself an official member of the tribe, whether you choose to do anything religious or not. Practicing the religion has nothing to do with it. However, by DNA, you are Jewish regardless.


That's only because in olden days, the only thing you could be sure of was the child's mother - i.e., the person who actually gave birth to the baby. These days, with DNA testing, you can tell who both the mother and father are.


No, that’s the history, perhaps, but now it’s only because of whatever decisions the current relevant authorities have decided. Wedding officiants, immigration authorities, etc. and not all of them follow the matrilineal rule.

Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 08:57     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So, I thought I was of Polish/Czech Catholic ancestry, but my at-home DNA test indicates 99% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

By Jewish law, does this mean I am "officially" Jewish? I was raised Catholic and know nothing about the religion. (But am going to research, as I'm interested in knowing my family's story).


If your mother is Jewish (meaning her mother was Jewish), then by Jewish law you can consider yourself an official member of the tribe, whether you choose to do anything religious or not. Practicing the religion has nothing to do with it. However, by DNA, you are Jewish regardless.


That's only because in olden days, the only thing you could be sure of was the child's mother - i.e., the person who actually gave birth to the baby. These days, with DNA testing, you can tell who both the mother and father are.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2025 07:28     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So, I thought I was of Polish/Czech Catholic ancestry, but my at-home DNA test indicates 99% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

By Jewish law, does this mean I am "officially" Jewish? I was raised Catholic and know nothing about the religion. (But am going to research, as I'm interested in knowing my family's story).


If your mother is Jewish (meaning her mother was Jewish), then by Jewish law you can consider yourself an official member of the tribe, whether you choose to do anything religious or not. Practicing the religion has nothing to do with it. However, by DNA, you are Jewish regardless.


You may be genetically Jewish, but religiously, you can be anything you want. Unlike genetics, religion is. optional. As an adult, you can be any religion or no religion.

Your family probably changed to the Catholic faith because it was dangerous to be Jewish where they lived at the time of their conversion.
Anonymous
Post 01/04/2025 20:57     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:So, I thought I was of Polish/Czech Catholic ancestry, but my at-home DNA test indicates 99% Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

By Jewish law, does this mean I am "officially" Jewish? I was raised Catholic and know nothing about the religion. (But am going to research, as I'm interested in knowing my family's story).


If your mother is Jewish (meaning her mother was Jewish), then by Jewish law you can consider yourself an official member of the tribe, whether you choose to do anything religious or not. Practicing the religion has nothing to do with it. However, by DNA, you are Jewish regardless.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 18:55     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Any thoughts OP? I know you said you are not checking in again, but I think there was some good information that came after your last post.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 11:13     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who are upset about the suggestion of incest should realize how often Dna tests are showing it...here is a study where 1 in 7000 people in a DNA bank had parents who were siblings or parent and child. https://hcn.health/hcn-trends-story/consumer-dna-tests-uncover-hidden-epidemic-of-incest/ and there's a paywalled Atlantic story from earlier this year on the same topic. the odds of that vs two secret Ashkenazi Jews finding each other and having kids don't seem that different.


People who get their DNA done are not a random population sample. Many are people looking for answers. Anyway a few people here have chimed in to say that they have the same high percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA.

There is no reason for you to keep insisting that there is a traumatic explanation. If so, OP will learn from further research. This post is in the Religion forum.

It's not weird at all for people from a common ethnic origin to have lived in the same small neighborhood in the first half of the 1900s. In my family's ethnicity, men got mail order brides from the homeland.

Also, in some global cultures, it's okay for uncles to marry nieces and more tolerated for first cousins to marry. Like European royalty (Queen Victoria). It wasn't considered incest. So there's that.


It's very common for people of the same background to marry but it's very uncommon for people concealing the same background to find each other and marry.
It's very common for people whose parents are both Ashekenazi Jews to have 90% or more Ashkenazi DNA but it's very uncommon for someone who never knew they had Jewish heritage to have that high a percentage of it.


PP. Madeleine Albright didn't know until the 1990s. Here...I'm gifting an article that covers a situation similar to OP's.

https://wapo.st/400a68c

"She says she was raised as a Roman Catholic and was never told by her parents or anyone else that family members had perished in the Holocaust. She says she has no independent knowledge of the evidence about her family's connection with that tragedy – the records showing the family's Jewish origins; the memories of family friends that Albright's parents converted to Catholicism around the time of World War II; records and other information indicating that Albright's relatives were exterminated at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps."


Yeah I think posters I nthis thread are missing the difference between "my 64 18th century ancestors were all secret Jews" and "my 2 parents or 4 grandparents were abandoned Judaism".


But Albright would be OP’s grandparent in this scenario so there would have to be 4 of them. Even if Albright could be the parent there would have to be a second one. That’s the unlikely part. OP says she is 44 years old. If say Albright’s parents had another child in 1950, that could be OP if OP was 75 …
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 11:01     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who are upset about the suggestion of incest should realize how often Dna tests are showing it...here is a study where 1 in 7000 people in a DNA bank had parents who were siblings or parent and child. https://hcn.health/hcn-trends-story/consumer-dna-tests-uncover-hidden-epidemic-of-incest/ and there's a paywalled Atlantic story from earlier this year on the same topic. the odds of that vs two secret Ashkenazi Jews finding each other and having kids don't seem that different.


People who get their DNA done are not a random population sample. Many are people looking for answers. Anyway a few people here have chimed in to say that they have the same high percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA.

There is no reason for you to keep insisting that there is a traumatic explanation. If so, OP will learn from further research. This post is in the Religion forum.

It's not weird at all for people from a common ethnic origin to have lived in the same small neighborhood in the first half of the 1900s. In my family's ethnicity, men got mail order brides from the homeland.

Also, in some global cultures, it's okay for uncles to marry nieces and more tolerated for first cousins to marry. Like European royalty (Queen Victoria). It wasn't considered incest. So there's that.


It's very common for people of the same background to marry but it's very uncommon for people concealing the same background to find each other and marry.
It's very common for people whose parents are both Ashekenazi Jews to have 90% or more Ashkenazi DNA but it's very uncommon for someone who never knew they had Jewish heritage to have that high a percentage of it.


PP. Madeleine Albright didn't know until the 1990s. Here...I'm gifting an article that covers a situation similar to OP's.

https://wapo.st/400a68c

"She says she was raised as a Roman Catholic and was never told by her parents or anyone else that family members had perished in the Holocaust. She says she has no independent knowledge of the evidence about her family's connection with that tragedy – the records showing the family's Jewish origins; the memories of family friends that Albright's parents converted to Catholicism around the time of World War II; records and other information indicating that Albright's relatives were exterminated at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps."


Yeah I think posters I nthis thread are missing the difference between "my 64 18th century ancestors were all secret Jews" and "my 2 parents or 4 grandparents were abandoned Judaism".
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:58     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jewish law doesn’t address DNA, as far as I know. Do a genealogy search to see who your ancestors were. If your mother is Jewish, whether or not a “practicing” Jew, you are Jewish under Jewish law.

So is being Jewish an ethnicity, not a faith?


Why do you ask?


Knowing stuff is cool.


Mmm hmm.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:57     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Those who are upset about the suggestion of incest should realize how often Dna tests are showing it...here is a study where 1 in 7000 people in a DNA bank had parents who were siblings or parent and child. https://hcn.health/hcn-trends-story/consumer-dna-tests-uncover-hidden-epidemic-of-incest/ and there's a paywalled Atlantic story from earlier this year on the same topic. the odds of that vs two secret Ashkenazi Jews finding each other and having kids don't seem that different.


People who get their DNA done are not a random population sample. Many are people looking for answers. Anyway a few people here have chimed in to say that they have the same high percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA.

There is no reason for you to keep insisting that there is a traumatic explanation. If so, OP will learn from further research. This post is in the Religion forum.

It's not weird at all for people from a common ethnic origin to have lived in the same small neighborhood in the first half of the 1900s. In my family's ethnicity, men got mail order brides from the homeland.

Also, in some global cultures, it's okay for uncles to marry nieces and more tolerated for first cousins to marry. Like European royalty (Queen Victoria). It wasn't considered incest. So there's that.


It's very common for people of the same background to marry but it's very uncommon for people concealing the same background to find each other and marry.
It's very common for people whose parents are both Ashekenazi Jews to have 90% or more Ashkenazi DNA but it's very uncommon for someone who never knew they had Jewish heritage to have that high a percentage of it.


PP. Madeleine Albright didn't know until the 1990s. Here...I'm gifting an article that covers a situation similar to OP's.

https://wapo.st/400a68c

"She says she was raised as a Roman Catholic and was never told by her parents or anyone else that family members had perished in the Holocaust. She says she has no independent knowledge of the evidence about her family's connection with that tragedy – the records showing the family's Jewish origins; the memories of family friends that Albright's parents converted to Catholicism around the time of World War II; records and other information indicating that Albright's relatives were exterminated at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps."


fascinating article, thank you! Yes, it is kind of lost in history that there were many completely secularized and cosmopolitan Jews in Europe. But the Holocaust didn’t distinguish that and the Nazis and tended to keep great records of who was born Jewish, so ultimately they were forced to be Jewish whether or not they felt secular at heart. But Albright’s story shows one route for assimilation, sadly made more possible by the extinguishment of all relatives that might not have assimilated.

But for OP I still don’t think this is a likely explanation because Albright would be her grandparent’s generation (or maybe one older parent) and there would have to be two of them.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:56     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jewish law doesn’t address DNA, as far as I know. Do a genealogy search to see who your ancestors were. If your mother is Jewish, whether or not a “practicing” Jew, you are Jewish under Jewish law.

So is being Jewish an ethnicity, not a faith?


Why do you ask?


Knowing stuff is cool.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:50     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous question, if being Jewish is ethnicity or a religion. I am both Orthodox Christian and ethnic something. Just like in any other ethnic and religious group.
Catholic Syrians are both Arabs and Catholics, don't be a racist POS.


Maybe try to be less ignorant before being an ahole?

There is an obvious difference from someone being both an ethnic Arab and a religious Catholic, vs someone being both an ethnic Jew and a religious Jew.
If you look very,nvery closely, you might notice that the word "Arab" and the word "Catholic" are not the same word. One way to check is that the word "Christian" is about twice as long. They also have different first letter.
However, the words "Jew" and "Jew" are far, far harder to distinguish from each other.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:49     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
For everyone who is doubting OP's results, just Google 100% Ashkenazi Jewish and 99% Ashkenazi Jewish.

There are tons of hits, Reddit discussions, etc.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:45     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
What a ridiculous question, if being Jewish is ethnicity or a religion. I am both Orthodox Christian and ethnic something. Just like in any other ethnic and religious group.
Catholic Syrians are both Arabs and Catholics, don't be a racist POS.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:43     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jewish law doesn’t address DNA, as far as I know. Do a genealogy search to see who your ancestors were. If your mother is Jewish, whether or not a “practicing” Jew, you are Jewish under Jewish law.

So is being Jewish an ethnicity, not a faith?


It's all these things - an ethnicity, a faith, a practice, a culture. Different people have a different relationship to these parts of Judaism. For me it's more of a culture and a tradition - though I am also 99% ashkenazi. I'm an atheist but also a Jew.
Anonymous
Post 12/31/2024 10:40     Subject: Jewish people, I have a question for you...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jewish law doesn’t address DNA, as far as I know. Do a genealogy search to see who your ancestors were. If your mother is Jewish, whether or not a “practicing” Jew, you are Jewish under Jewish law.

So is being Jewish an ethnicity, not a faith?


Why do you ask?