בס"ד
Our Jewishness is neither solely defined by what we "look like" in strictly physical terms (facial features, form and shape of the body, or any other purely physical aspect of our being), nor our place in Diaspora (it being understood that individual physicial traits or characteristics, experiences, and traditions in Diaspora are to be respected; one who is committed to preserving their Jewish history and tradition in Diaspora has every right to be and do so according to Halakha — this has nothing to do with the fallacy of the social construct of "race").
Our Jewishness is defined by:
1) our common descendance from Abraham veSara,
2) our acceptance of the obligations of Torah by "all those who were there, and all those who were not there" (Debarim 29:13-14, Shabuot 39a)...throughout all space and time..., and,
3) according to Halakha, the manifestation of both through our maternal descendance from a Jewish mother (whatever she "looks like") or conversion (which, according to some of our Sages, truly represents a Jewish soul finding its lost half, and, according to some of our Sages, represents a spark of holiness in the soul of a lost Jew or a Gentile...).
What does a "Nefesh Yehudi" (our "spiritual DNA"...) "look like"? It is invisible to the eye.
We are a nation of people BeMisrah, MeMisrah, LeMisrah...rooted in the East — mentally, physically, spiritually...
In our humble opinion, one should therefore refrain from strictly assigning a standard, limited physical characteristic, form, or racial construct to "Jewishness", to ourselves, as Jews (as those who hate us have sought to do throughout the centuries, and seek to do even today, such as Amalek openly revealing itself on this earth during the course of the Spanish Inquisition, the Shoah, the Jewish Nakba, the attacks on Habeshim in the Sudan as they made Aliyah to Israel (on foot!)...this past Friday's terrorist attack on the Hyper Cacher in Paris (!)) — the true science of genetics easily being misunderstood or manipulated, and falling into the evils of eugenics and racist, anti-semitic morphologies (some concepts of which have sadly been internalized by some of us, as Jewish people)...'Has veShalom.
~ Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham, ISRAELrealNATION,
15 January 2015, 25 Tebet 5775
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ISRAELrealNATION / Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham
(As edited and republished from an original text published by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham in the official ISRAELrealNATION Facebook Page on 15 January 2015, 25 Tebet 5775.)
