ALTERNATE ORIGINS

There is much more at stake here than intellectual curiosity, and it wouldn’t be the first time scientific inquiry was influenced There is also the question of what will happen sociologically to the Jewish American population, the majority of whom by political forces. Palestinians want to hear that Jews are more European than Middle Eastern because they feel they can lay a will soon have been 150 years behind The Golden Door. It has been said that “Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto better claim to having been the “original” Israeli population. Jews, on the other hand, want to hear that Palestinians in particular, Ricans,” meaning Jews should be voting for Republicans instead Democrats. Generations of Republicans have been frustrated and that Arabs in general, are more a mixture of black African slaves and more recent arrivals from the Arabian Peninsula, so that that their steadfast support of Israel has produced only a small increase in Jewish support – and this has been at a time when being they can secure their claim to the Holy Land.

Jewish still means being more wealthy than the average American.

And if, by way of inheritance, Arabs ARE found to be entitled to a stake in the Holy Land, would this also mean that Jews What will change; what will not? Will the Republicans drop their support for Israel? Will the Democrats more vigorously should have a share of Arab oil?

take it up? Will Jewish voting patterns change? And will “Jewish wealth” decrease or increase relative to the rest of the popula-No one except our own feckless government believes this argument will be decided through sweet reason. War will be the tion? Will they be more or less successful as their initial immigrant “drive” fades into the American past? And in what other ways usual “decider.”

will be the socioeconomic status of Jewish Americans change in the American future? Already many educators have seen Asians Too bad.

replacing Jews in academic excellence, in scholarships, and in their presence in the professions. Does this represent a “slide”

Absent the question of how to make a lasting peace all over the world, the most important question in my mind remains: Who for the Jews, or simply a “rise” for the Asians? Will the slide or rise continue? Who’s next? What role does acceptance into the are the Jews and where did they come from?

mainstream culture play in being exceptional in America? In being mediocre? Does it help or hinder? And while were touching Another question is: How do we – or CAN we – reconstruct Jewish genealogy during the two thousand years of our Diaspora?

on uncomfortable subjects, what will happen to Jewish IQ?

Are the records forever gone or missing , or still existing somewhere, but indecipherable? I have no doubt the beginning of this answer is known to the researchers at the YIVO Institute. Websites like JewishGen are active and interesting, but in most cases do not go any farther back than I am able to; but in order to reconstruct a lineage for my side, there has to be similar records availability.

All of this begs another question: Even if the Holocaust had never happened, given the history of names in Jewish culture, is the reconstruction of a 500 year old family tree even possible for the average person with my heritage? (With the exception of famous rabbinical families)

A third question also excites my curiosity: What were the demographics of conversion, both forced and voluntary? We know that until Christianity came on the scene, Judaism was a prosteletizing religion. We also know that at least 10% of the Roman Empire was Jewish. And we know that the early Christians were Jewish, and, if they weren’t eaten by lions in the Colliseum, they probably married someone - who also became Christian – and had children. We also know that Isabella of Spain forced 300,000

Jews to leave because they would not convert – and that some of those who did convert ended up in South America. Others remained in Spain.

What estimates could we venture about the total number of conversions and how many of their descendants remain?

Admittedly, this is not a question that both zealous Christians and zealous Jews want an answer to; each side finds it embarrassing. Jews leaving Jews, Christians leaving Christians, Jews marrying non-Jews and vice versa, and Christians intermarrying with Jews or former Jews because they wanted to; none of these people have been historically popular: But what are the estimates?

This is not a “small” question: It could help prevent another Holocaust.

Even the purported history of the Jewish community of Eastern Europe does not seem to square with the numbers – especially in the light of the recent “discoveries” of genetics which suggest that the entire Jewish population of Eastern Europe descended from 200 founders – and only about 1,000 years ago. My cousin Jakub tells me Poland is and was full of people with part-Jewish ancestry, and only now is it “trendy” (one might substitute “safe”) to remember it.

As I point out in my small article about Jews in colonial America, if you extrapolate forward, there must be a lot of “missing Jews” in plain sight in the American mainstream population. What is true for the Eastern European? We do not have the full picture here, and it would be interesting to view it.

If the American Jew has been WASPified, the WASP has also been “Jewified.” “Seinfeld” was not only popular among Jews, for example, and it has influenced American language, humor, and culture. There are thousand Jews – especially in the entertainment industries – who have influenced Americans -from the Marx Brothers to Bill Maher, and from Al Jolson to Bob Dylan.

What is the extent of their influence?

It is not uncommon to hear some of the last blonde haired, blue eyed WASPy Playmates using Yiddish phrases, such as: “He is such a smuck!” and “He took the whole smear” – butchering the Yiddish accent, sure; but using the vocabulary. What is the impact of Jews on American English? The self-interested Rabbis and the need to hate haters of “Jewish Hollywood” are both only concerned about the question: “Which one of us will be preserved?” But the history of America has shown– absent a genocide, such as in our history with the Indians – some bargain in the middle will be struck: some sort of new species of new sub-culture swill be created. What will happen culturally to the Jews and Jewish influence vis a vis the wider America?

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