Faith and Tradition (was ID as a Cultural Phenomenon) (Humans)

by David Turell , Thursday, November 12, 2009, 17:01 (5281 days ago) @ George Jelliss

The BBC Radio 4 programme "Start the Week" this week featured Schlomo Sand and his book "The Invention of the Jewish People". I wondered what your impression of this might be, assuming you have heard of it.-
Glad you asked the question. I am an Ashkanazic Jew (Eastern European). Our DNA had been studied and does not show much intervention from other groups of people. Sand is a known Marxist, anti-Zionist university professor, who stands with the far left groups in Israel. Most nations have all sorts of opinions. The joke goes that when you have three Jews talking together, you will hear ten opinions. Sand has produced mostly fiction, not non-fiction. Read it and enjoy a novel. The three tribes he uses to talk about conversion, are small disparate groups. We have a tradition of non-proselytizing. Non-Jews must ask to join, and then are taught and have to go through certain rituals.-I have toured Israel in 1983 with a Sabra (a Jew born in Israel) who was a colonel in the tanker corps, had fought in all the wars to that point. I can imagine what he would do to Sands if they ever met. )