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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.