I’m Jewish, right?

Hi. I’m JJ, and I would consider myself to be Jewish. I follow Jewish holidays, I speak shitty but light Hebrew, I played dradle with my cousins at the new year that just passed, and I try my best to pray everyday, but some people say I’m not Jewish.

I am what they call a “Patrilineal Jew.” I get my heritage from my dads side of the family, which, to an orthodox Jewish person, would not be considered correct, because my mother was brought up catholic. Most people know, others don’t. When I tell people some just shrug and smile, others ask me lots of questions.

The reason I felt weird about this was because I was in an RS (religious studies) class last week, and my teacher told me I “wasn’t properly Jewish.” We were talking about traditional Christians and how they expected women to wear headscarves in church, and I brought up that, as Jews, we are encouraged to dress modestly in a synagogue, and she seemed surprised. She asked me about it, and came to the conclusion that, because I don’t go to the synagogue every Saturday, and that, I don’t follow every single rule in the Tanahk, that I’m not Jewish.

I’ve been off sick this week with stupid fucking hand foot and mouth, but all week I’ve been questioning whether she was right. I only just discovered that term. “Patrilineal.” I Googled it for the sake of doing so, and it made me feel better. Being Jewish doesn’t have to be full on, labelling yourself as Jewish, whether you know Hebrew, are black, white, Asian, Scandinavian, whatever, whether you are what society calls a “proper Jew”, or if your like me, who is just accepting and embracing their heritage.

So, if you are questioning your faith and/or heritage, you can label yourself if you please. You aren’t pretending or appropriating anyone’s religion, because whether you practice it or not, you are what you are. I may not eat kosher all the time (trust me I’m eating a lot of spam and pork belly with spicy noodles once I get my ability to chew back) and I may not go to temple, I may not speak absolutely perfect Hebrew, and I may not have had a Bar mitzvah, but I’m Jewish. And that’s chill. With me anyway.