Russian nationalist who denied Jewish origin on search for roots in Israel

Maybe I'm being unduly optimistic, but maybe this visit will do something to change his point of view. As a nationalist, maybe he'll come to the realization that the Jewish people are back in their home. And those that are fighting this - the Arabs - are the same that are threatening the culture of Russia, as well.

many people believe that Reform considers anyone Jewish who has a Jewsih father, but that is not accurate. They do so only in cases where someone has been brought up as being Jewish all their life, but strictly speaking they are not because their mother never converted. This woman would probably not be considered Jewish in a Reform congregation either.

How we love to hate others to make ourselves feel better. What we hate seems to define some of us, because we have no definition of our own. Not everyone can be the best, the most beautiful, the richest, the cleverest .. yet instead of admiring greatness; aspiring to greatness; creating greatness; we find faults in those that are great because they are not perfect. It is just to make ourselves feel less inferior .. but how inferior that makes us.

Yesterday I was in a meeting with a Russian immigrant and a Sabra Israeli (I am an American Immigrant) and the Sabra asked the Russian if she was Jewish (No Sabra has ever asked me this question)and the Russian answered in the negative. The Russian woman's father is Jewish, therefore she is not considered Jewish here, but this is all irrelevant to the secular Sabra, who merely sees her as another non-Jewish Russian immigrant. I know many Jews in the U.S. who consider themselves Jewish with only a Jewish father. Reform Judaism accepts this - and their Halachic reasoning is sound. The original requirement that the mother be Jewish stems from a period of history when paternity could not be established beyond the shadow of a doubt. What if a non-Jewish woman was raped and failed to tell her Jewish husband, because in those days he would immediately have accused her of adultery, then a serious crime? TODAY we have DNA testing. Let us end this self-hate and accept all Jews as Jewish.

There is nothing unusual about people having Jewish ancestry being the biggest anti-Semites. Tomas Torquemada of Inquisition infamy supposedly had Jewish ancestry. Hitler certainly believed he may have had Jewish ancestry. "Hangman" Heyrich, the actual designer of the Holocaust was called "The Jew" because it was believed he had Jewish ancestry. Erhard Milch, deputy head of the Luftwaffe was a Jew, so was Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. It all goes back to the biblical Ishmael and Esau. They had "Hebrew" blood and they and their decendents became bitter enemies of the Jewish people. Libyan Jews say Qaddafi's mother is a Jew. I guess these people feel that in order to be "accepted" by the outside world, much of which is anti-Semitic, they have to prove their credential by becoming persecutors of the Jews. Very interesting problem for the world of psychiatry.