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When people ask me about my religion, i answer that i am a secular Jew. I remember my also saying to me that, as an adult, i was always trying to escape from my family. And so it was, unbeknownst to me until i recognized my own behaviour during my 4th decade.

Although some details may be different, Helen Fremont's experiences parallel those of so many other children of Holocaust survivors, mine included.

Her beautifully articulated memoirs triggered so many emotions for me and i thank my cousin Yitzhak for bringing her to my attention. #Holocaust #HolocaustSurvivors #family #secrets

[jewishboston.com]

josephr 7 Oct 24
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6 comments

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2

At least you have a remembered ethnicity. I'm a mutt who only has an earlier confusion of religious belief that finally got me to where I am today.

Growing up being told my ethnicity and heritage was as a Polish Christian. It wasn't until after my Father died that my Cousin felt free to tell me the real truth. Interestingly, throughout my time in high school and university, I hung out out with small minority of Jews. I even partied at the Jewish Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity at another University where most of friends had gone.

So my memory was at a cellular or unconscious level. LOL

3

When people ask me I say "I believe in facts not faith."

So you have faith in facts. LOL

@josephr no. You don't need to have faith in facts as they're proven.

@redhog That used to be true. But what some perceive, or assert as facts, are in fact alt-facts. People have an intrinsic ability, or disability, to create their own truths, and facts. Ask any therapist.

@josephr science is science. If its peer reviewed it can be trusted

@redhog True,. But in this day and age the accuracy of 'peer reviewed' assertions will always depend on the 'peers' who did the reviewing. Nothing new under the sun, though. In the 1800s A group of British medical 'experts' asserted that coal dust was therapeutic for coal miners suffering respiratory dysfunctions. Sadly, there are still 'peers' who are susceptible to 'payola'. LOL So the responsibility to assess peer reviews is still relevant.

1

Try not to get your familial ethnicity confused with your religion/non-religious beliefs.
For the most part, they are 2 different things.
Religion dictates how you should believe, family TRIES to dictate how we should see ourselves and who we see ourselves as being.
Unfortunately though, often when one 'breaks' from religion/religious believes as followed by the family it also causes familial rifts to occur as well.
My ardent Atheism has caused great rifts between my blood-related family and I, rifts that I accept and have no wish to heal by doing their bidding and returning to their deluded little fold, so to speak.
Just be yourself, be proud to be who you are and stick to your guns, you WILL be better for it in the long run.

1

But isn't that youe ethnicity not your religion? That would be like if I said I am a secular canadian. It'd be strange. Or do you believe the religious aspects of judaism and maintain all the religious rituals for yourself beyond obligation?

For reasons requiring far more words and knowledge that i have available to me right now, being a Jew, for me and others, is more than just a religion. I don't know whether ethnicity is a broad enough label. Thousands of years of being persecuted and murdered seems to have such an impact on those targeted. Jews aren't alone having such consequences.

And no, i don't accept the religious aspects of the religion, nor do i practice judaistic rituals. I was brought up to believe that i was a Christian like Helen Fremont.

There are black ethiopian jews, sephardic jews, hispanic jews, so jewishness per se is not exclusively ethnic, neither is it regional or geographic, religious classification is more accurate.

Yes I know that there are many races of jews as religious jews. But then others are secular jews and they define their jewishness as their ethnicity/culture not their religion. That is what I meant. It may be more accurate as a religion, but if Jews wish to classify that as their ethnicity or culture it is not my place to deny them that. You know?

2

It seems you need courage to survive trauma and so do your children.

It's what i ultimately understood and accepted about my parents.

@josephr I watched a video just yesterday on YouTube by a man who wrote a book called The Body Keeps The Score. It is about, among other things, how trauma is treated on the basis of the individual and should be treated by the circle the sufferer lives in.
That said, on a personal note, you survived and lived to tell the tale so well done!

@brentan Thank you, and for posting the video. Interesting.

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So what brings you here?

What brings you here?

@barjoe I’m an agnostic atheist 🙂

Yes, I was wondering the same.

@girlwithsmiles @Jolanta He's a secular member of an ethnic group. His parents were targeted during the holocaust because they are Jewish. He has every right to post here.

OK guys, what am I missing?

I was taught by a jewish person that judaism is both a religion and an ethnicity. So one can be an agnostic or atheist jew just like one can be an agnostic american or agnostic canadian. It is a cultural thing for some. That is why I asked the OP if he meant it religiously or ethnically.

@demifeministgal Exactly. Thank you for understanding.

@K9Kohle789 I think of Jews as intensely conscious of survival. I would class Jewish needs as survival, culture and religion in order of importance. Where religion is concerned, I think of their transition from the mythical age to a sense of a god taking them forward in a historic covenantal agreement to a future time when they would become priests and kings over the earth. Where culture is concerned, it involved both the effect on the people living in that belief system and the effect on people outside it. Nobody can deny the effect of the Jewish belief system on a huge portion of the world. It is the basis of our Judeo-Christian heritage. I would be very proud of this contribution to world culture – world development, in the sense of consciousness growing through the struggles of time. I think of it as birth pangs and the Jews are not recognised for their part in this evolution, but are persecuted for not accepting the development of their faith in the archetype of Christ.

@K9Kohle789 thanks for that. Sounds like being Australian, we have a thing called mateship, unless someone presents as a con we usually help each other too 😊

@K9Kohle789 I don’t know anyone who hates Jews, but my friend’s son is very against Zionism and makes a good case.

@K9Kohle789 ok, thanks. As far as I’m concerned we all started out in Africa 100,000 years ago, or so, so I’m not going to pretend I’m better because my ancestors emigrated to a certain part of the planet 😉

@barjoe Sorry, what do you mean? Of course he has a right to post things and be on this site, however do you think that just because ones parents or grand parents were targeted during the holocaust it gives you special rights?

@Jolanta He was asked why he was here and you said you were wondering the same thing. He doesn't have special rights but I accept him as an Atheist and I don't have any problem with Jews or any other ethnic group. His family was persecuted during the holocaust for their ethnicity not their religion.

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