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Originally Posted by QuantumTheory  Dear Agnostics, this post is all about Jewish Identity, seeing that I am of Eastern-European Jewish ethnicity, I feel it's appropriate that a Jewish person provides a post on this sensitive topic.
Jewish identity is identifying oneself as a Jew. Jewish identity can be cultural in nature, just as there are religious and cultural components of Christian or Buddhist identity.
According to tradition, Jewish ethnicity is passed down maternally. Therefore if one has a Jewish mother they are considered a 'Jew' irrespective of what religious affiliation they later convert to.
Jewish identity can involve ties to the Jewish community. (Adam Sandler, Roman Abramovich, Bob Dylan)
Jewish identity may be religious. (Moses Maimonides, Leonard Nimoy, Steven Spielberg)
Jews who are Agnostics or Atheists may have Jewish identity. (Karl Marx, Sigmund Freund, Isaac Asimov)
People born from a mixed Jewish and non-Jewish background may have Jewish identity. (David Duchovny, Daniel Radcliffe, Carrie Fischer)
Jewish identity can involve a sense of kinship with Israel. Jews in the Jewish diaspora may see Israel as the homeland of their people.
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I am half-Ashkenazi Jew on my father's side. Most traditionalists would therefore claim that I'm technically not Jewish but why should I have to pass a test and get 'authenticated' due to some old Halachic 'law'? Jewish identity is more than religious, as I'm obviously agnostic - for me, it's enough to be cultural. Plus I have the nose
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