You've likely had a non-Jewish friend who's sent you a website of a hitherto unknown "Jewish" (the person at least claims he/she is) "expert" who breathlessly confesses that yes, the Zionist/Masonic/Illuminati and others are indeed controlling the world through bankers, etc. Maybe these mavins are what they claim to be, but hell, anybody can say they're Jewish. Freedom Of Speech and all that. How do we tell, though?
Fact is, we really can't. There's this website owned by one Henry Maslow, who insists he's a---get this---racial Jew who must "expose" the secret Zionist agenda of the "Jewish" world-bankers. For all I know he may be a self-loathing Jew or a liar, but this kind of nonsense is precisely what we don't need. Non-Jews are quick to believe anything if it's claimed to be from a Jew, of course. I know this from my own experience. My parents would read some smutty novel about "Jewish" life and, if the author had a "Jewish" name, believe every word of it. We all know that far too many Jewish novelists pander to their gentile reader's prejudices as it is. Anyone who's ever read Kemelman's the "(insert day of week)The Rabbi..." series of mystery novels can attest to that fact, although these novels aren't nearly as bad as some of Phillip Roth's. Remember the movie "Goodbye Columbus"?
Unfortunately, to really be sure of someone's "Jewishness" would require the nightmare described by the blog "ON THE FRINGE" (which is an excellent blog here on all-things Jewish whose author and commentators are quite well-informed, and I recommend it ) that, boiled down to its essence is simply Israel's Chief Rabbis deciding who is, or is not, Jewish based on Ultra-Orthodox prejudices and extremism. It's like the South's "One drop" rule; one drop of "negro" blood invalidates your "whiteness". Of course you can see where that would have led, and the South had the good sense not to insist on it, too. This Who Is A Jew? debate has been going on for at least thirty years,but the Ultras now pose a significant threat. Because Israel has a multi-party system in which it's virtually impossible for one party to get enough votes to run a government itself, the majority party must negotiate with smaller parties to form a coalition government; this means the smaller parties can extort huge concessions in exchange for their support, and the religious parties like Shas and Agudath Israel never hesitate to press for bigger concessions every time.
Actually, this Who is a Jew? debate is "who is a rabbi?". Even if your rabbi is Orthodox he won't necessarily "qualify" according to The Gedolai Torah in Israel. Getting back to self-proclaimed "Jews" who push the most ridiculous conspiracy theories, we had better be skeptical. The old adage of the worst anti-Semite being a fellow Jew has been born out over and over again. We certainly don't want a cure that's worse than the disease!
