That's why there are synagogues with so many denominations. When were YOU last in a synagogue

I´m trying to put it really simple for you. 1. I´m not a guy, I´m female. 2. I was born in Israel and my father is Israeli. His family has stayed in the country since the late 1890´s. 3. I am unrelated to Finnish Jews, who have come to Finland from Russia in the late 1800´s. I don´t associate with Finnish Jews. My Jewish friends are either Israelis or half Israelis, who live here.

Abraham was not the first "Jew". He was the first believer in G-d. The first Jews were those at Mt. Sinai who received Torah and started the religion of Judaism. Before Torah they were decendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and were called "Hebrews" meaning "traverse or pass over" . Only after Israel was established were they called "Israelites" who practiced Judaism. So, no, Abraham was not the first Jew. You can't be a Jew without Mitzvot.

Those Finnish people who moved from Finland to Minnesota, USA (tens of thousands of Finns) Do you think that they are no longer Finns, or their descendents are no longer Finns, just because they dont live in Finland. Cause that was your point. Finns are a certain ethnic group and Jews are an ethnic group as well. Converted Jews are kind of like people, who have Finnish citizenship, but who have no Finnish blood in them. So yes, they can be compared.

The numbers had been compiled as best as possible under the circumstance. These will be examined more closely before setting out. There are 7 000 ahead of them classified as Falasha (Jewish) who have proof and thus priority. Absorbing what there is takes time. My point is, the sooner we finish getting these people processed, the sooner Israelis on the ground can pack up, and leave Ethiopia.

I've been to quite a few synagogues, and I stand by my point. The liturgy, take Shabbat for example, is not that different between denominations. There's a beginning, middle, and end-and those are quite identical across the board. Now, HOW, as in whether to use English, make aliyot, wear tefilin, have a mechitza-yes, these do differ. We can even take into account the differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazic rites. These are more observed under Orthodox than with the Reform. Even then, these are more ritualistic differences than on the liturgy and it's order.

Let me address your points in a couple of sections. #32 Congratulations, your father is Israeli. That's certainly not common in Finland. Now, traditionally, it's the mother who determines that a child is Jewish. I don't really want to go there, as to be honest, there is such thing as a Jew by choice. If you chose this path, I am happy for you. Especially in mostly xtian Finland. You have the most important ingredient-the memory. Now, #34 The Finns in USA are no longer the same as the ones who originally settled there. Many have lost the language, and have become Americanized-thoroughly. The main trace of Finnishness is the last name. Maybe some distant memory of having a long lost Finnish relative. If that's not enough, many have intermarried, and mixed with all sorts of different people. So they are no longer "pure" as in the old country. This is typical though, of people in the New World. Everyone's mixed to some extent. Before I go, once someone has converted to Judaism, it's generally not reversable. Apart from a few egregious cases of fraudulent conversions, one becomes always a Jew. Even if one chooses to convert to something else. Unlike citizenship, which can e revoked for whatever reason a state chooses to revoke it for. It's a different case.

It's no different than the Russians. You have white Europeans with a vaguely Jewish background coming to Israel to improve their economic status. They end up more poor and as a result we have Israeli neo-nazis. No more immigration, period, I say!

His comments as to "pure Jews" are tantamount to those who were advocating who were pure Germans. Their "Jewishness" should have beebn checked while they were still in their villages is absolutely disgusting. And imagine, I as an American taxpayer have to pay for this rampant racism that exists in Israel. If Der Sturmer were still in existence, he could have been writing articles for them, only problem is is that he would have been the wrong color and a Jew.

Yes, ethnically I am a half-Jew, but it doesn´t bother me at all. Having both, Jewish and Western European genes, what could be a better combination. However I look like Israeli, so nobody really considers me to be a Finn. Generally speaking.. Isn´t it ironic that Arabs face so much hatred in Israel, but they are actually genetically much closer to us than Ethiopian Jews are. Jews, regardless of whether it´s an Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi or Yemenite, they all have Middle-Eastern genes, but Ethiopian Jews have African genes. Just stating a fact, ynet has a warped idea of freedom of speech so they might censor this.

I used to think that arabs and jews were related semetic people, "cousins" if you will then I looked it up arabs actually are from HAMetic lines thus are more related to africans then you might know abraham had a son with an "egyptian" slave, he was named ishmael. He in turn was found an egyptian wife by his egyptian mother. for generations after more and more hametic blood was added to the pool, and no more semetic blood as far as I could asertain. Even if you say abraham and the slave = half semetic/half hametic then by ishmael having 1/2 hametic crossed with another hametic full blood= 1/4 semitic and 3/4 hametic so already by the generation of ishmaels kids there is only 25% semetic bloodline. After that the lines continue to be further diluted. make from that what you will. It doesnt really matter to me that much, but feel free to look it up yourself

First to Joshua B, with Kol Hakavod to your "historical knowledge", of ALL things Jewish, its that arrogant, condensending attitude, this "holier-than -thou" perception that you have of yourself and the constant looking down on secular Jews like myself. THIS is what the problem is with Jews like you, thinking that because you pray, daven and eat kosher you are the "REAL JEWS", well guess what, Hitler didnt differentiate nor do other haters..Get over yourselves already....We , no matter what kind of Jew you are, ARE ALL JEWS!! To #29..Thanks for your kind words, Ill be returning to live in Israel in April, Lahitraot!!

Jews are very closely related to Arabs. More than 70% of Jewish men and half of the Arab men have inherited their Y chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors who lived in the southern Levant (a region that includes Israel and the Sinai) within the last few thousand years. A substantial portion of Y chromosomes of Jews (70%) and Palestinian Muslim Arabs (50%) belong to the same chromosome pool. Also, 30% of the Muslim Arab chromosomes belong to a very closely related lineage, because a part of Muslim Arabs in the land of Israel descend from local inhabitants, mainly Christians and Jews, who had converted after the Islamic conquest of the 7th century A.D. This is very interesting and it explains why some of the Palestinians I have seen, have been blonde. However, the Kurds are genetically the closest people to Jews. According to studies the Jews and the Kurds share common ancient forefathers, who lived in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent (a part of contemporary Iraq and Syria). So the Kurds and Turks are genetically closer to Jews than Arabs are. Yet, Arabs and Jews have about 18 percent of all their chromosomes in common. The similarity between Jews and Israeli and Palestinian Arabs, is such that it is believed that the Y chromosomes of both groups had been drawn from a common population that began to expand 7,800 years ago. So PARTICURARLY the Palestinians are closely related to Jews. By the way ynet, I have to translate some of this information, so it would be appreciated, if you didn´t censor this, like you always do.

In researches all Jewish samples have shown a high genetic correlation, with the only exception being Ethiopian Jews. And though many Ashkenazi Jews have a light skin tone, it doesn´t make them any less Middle-Eastern than the other Jews. Note that Israel is geographically close to Europe and that many Palestinians and Bedouins have a light skin. So many Israelites probably had a light skin to begin with. There may be a slight European gene-flow as well, but researches have shown that it isn´t significant. Studies have found that Jewish men share a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. These signatures are significantly different from non-Jewish men outside of the Middle East. So Jews, and this includes the Ashkenazi Jews are more closely related to Arabs than Europeans. Only converts and their descendents are not related to Arabs (unless its an Arab convert of cource)

Wow, Shir, you sure know your stuff. Have you studied this subject? You are very knowledgeable in this matter.

But I am interested in Jewish history and Jewish genetics. Dr. Michael Hammer has done amazing work in studying Jewish genes and I used mainly his studies as a source.

magazine that came out a few years ago. I cant remember the date, but it had a massive study that took place regarding genetics. The people tested were mostly in lebanon. And the articles were very interesting. The phoenicians, arabs, crusader remnants, jews, etc were all identified by their gene markers.

its simplified but I think that the magazine was october 2004

This is from a Science Daily Link: (authors of study Harry Ostrer, Michael Hammer, Alan Redd and some others) "Specific regions of the Y chromosome were analyzed in 1,371 men from 29 worldwide populations, including Jews and non-Jews from the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe. The study, published in the May 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Jewish men shared a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, and these signatures diverged significantly from non-Jewish men outside of this region. Consequently, Jews and Arabs share a common ancestor and are more closely related to one another than to non-Jews from other areas of the world. " Another Science Daily provides this information: (Dr. Doron Behar and Prof. Karl Skorecki) "The researchers found that the mtDNA of some 3.5 of the 8 million Ashkenazi Jews in the world can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNA of a type virtually absent in other populations. Non-Ashkenazi Jews also carry low frequencies of these distinct mtDNA types, providing evidence of shared maternal ancestry of Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi Jews. This is consistent with previous findings based on studies of the Y-chromosome, pointing to a similar pattern of shared paternal ancestry of global Jewish populations, originating in the Near East. The researchers concluded that the four founding mtDNA – likely of Middle Eastern origin – underwent a major overall expansion in Europe during the last millennium." The word "Semetic" itself doesn´t refer to ethnicity, both Hebrew and Arabic are Semetic languages, there is no such ethnic group "Semetic people". But when you think about it, the fact is Jews come from Middle-East, so it is natural that Jews are related to other Middle-Eastern people, rather than people from other continents. If they weren´t that would mean, that Jews originally came from somewhere else, and the anti-semitists could use that against Jews. I don´t know what magazine you are referring to, if you give the right words to search it, I´ll try to find it. But the results of these studies have not been contradicted.

It must´ve been that. But I can´t find the exact article. "Hamitic" isn´t a genetic term, rather religious as it is said in the Bible that Ham's sons have fathered the peoples of Africa. I really can´t find anything that ties Arabs to Sub-Saharan African people genetically.

http://phoenicia.org/genetics.html and the national geographic (the best magazine in the world) has a genetic program tracing DNA through history you can find more info here https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/resources.html?fs=news.nationalgeographic.com the article I was referring to was who were the phoenicians if you believe the noah story, which I do....then all the races must have decended from noah, shem, ham, and japheth to it entirely plausible that entire groups can have distinct markers linking them back to a few common sources

that arabs are somehow related to sub-Saharan Africans. From what I understand Phoenicians are the same people as "Canaanites" and they were Middle-Eastern people, like Sumerians and Akkadians who eventually vanished. I presume they were not related to sub-Saharan Africans. The other page dealt with Lebanese and their genetic relation to Southern Europeans. "when analysed separately, several mediterranean ethnic groups, notably the Greeks and Italians, have a frequency profile equivalent to that of the Lebanese." And the conclusion was that Lebanese people are closely related to Macedonians, Iberians (spanish and portuguese people) North Africans, Italians, French, Cretans, Jews, Anatolians (aboriginal Turks), Armenians and Iranians. So there was really nothing new in it and nothing that disputed the Michael Hammer/Bonnier-Tamir studies. Pierre Zalloua working for the National Geographic Genographic Project is Lebanese, so I doubt he has much interest in Jewish genes. Hammer and Behar are Jews and their work is centered around studying Jewish genes.

I don't know by what, but the fact that you would state that you don't associate with Jews in your current home is a bad sign. Ethiopian Jews do indeed have a genetic connection, no less valid. Very scary that you denied this in the same talkback that you discussed skin color. Thank G_d you're way up there and not here.

Genesis chapter 10 tells about noah and his sons after that you can see the geneologies and then Ishmael comes in around chapter 16 feel free to read the abraham story again and this time look for a few keys to the story ch 25 has a bit about the other wife Keturah, and also about the concubines sons being sent to the east....that could also perhaps explain some common genetics. ch25:12-18 ch21:10-14 ch24:37-38 ch17:19-21 btw If I were you I would not be so keen to deny any common bloodline between ethopian jewry and other jewry. There are many connections and not least of these is the son of solomon, menelik. Although his mother was the queen of sheba, and some may not consider him to be jewish, he did return to Israel to study under his father. The ethiopians consider him to be the one that brought many other Israelites with him back to ethiopia, including a number of levites, in order to follow the precepts he learned while in Israel, from his father. Shortly after meneliks return, the Israelites had wicked kings who ignored G-d and even put baal into the holy of holies.....what levite would ever allow such a thing? Yet it wasnt long after that the entire nation (Judah, and Israel) was utterly destroyed and placed in bondage. How can it be that menelik and his offspring, as well as the sons of all the elders of jerusalem, sent on command of solomon himself are not considered to have been jewish ...and yet those sent into assyria and babylon are? the sheba story is in 2 chronicles chapter 9 in ethiopia the story continues in the Kebra Nagast

Scientists say Ethiopian Jews are not genetically related, are you a scientist? Can you dispute their claims? Science is not racism. You shouldn´t be so happy, I have Israeli citizenship (dual citizenship, Israeli and Finnish) so I can come there any time I like. By the way I get treated very very well in both countries. Even when I was a kid, Israelis told my mum how pretty I was. I am used to that, I bet you wish you were? I don´t associate with Finnish Jews, because they don´t care about Israel. They consider Finland to be their homeland and are too loyal to Finland. In addition to that I see Finnish Jewish girls with cigarette on the other hand and glass of alcohol in the other. I dislike that kind of lifestyle and don´t want to be part of that. Lastly you just mind your own business.

is a law of RETURN. It is meant for people who actually had ancestors in Israel and are now Returning. I feel sympathy for poor people but the Law of Return wasn´t established for people who only come to Israel to improve their standars of living. I don´t know if it is possible to send them away, but Israel shouldn´t take any more of these fake Jews.

Religion is one thing, science is other. Regardless of whether one is a religious person, religion and science should not be mixed, because you have to be able to prove your point to all people regardless of their religion. Secondly there is no way of proving anything that Bible says, it is a matter of belief.

well I thought that anyone could choose to convert to judaism as long as they believe in the "religion" Also that seems to require that one "believe" in torah you cannot convert if you do not believe in torah the story in ethiopia is that once menelik was in jerusalem for some time the elders went to solomon and said "you are spending all your time with your son, and are not paying enough attention to matters of state, etc....please send him home to sheba and return to your role as king instead of spending your time as a father" His reply to them was, "I will send him home, but only if you all send a son to accompany him back to sheba" They eventually complied, and that is how in one fell swoop a large contingent of Israelites left to go to ethiopia. Once there most were put into positions of authority, and even established their own kingdoms within abyssinia itself. Mostly in the highlands. I think that a single father of jewish extraction can indeed have a child "following torah" that could be considered jewish, even if technically they are already 50% genetically like the father. Likewise every resulting generation, the genes are further diluted, but if the traditions are kept, and the children are continued in the traditions of torah, who are you to say that they are not jews. If a 100% lappish Finn can convert to judaism tommorow and have Israeli kids who are considered jews.....how can the offspring of those originals be contested if they have kept the traditions and followed torah? religion vs. science well you can be a born jew, hate Israel, call for concessions to the enemy, write columns for ynet, and never follow torah....but you will be a jew in name only, and it will bring shame to your families name. But a true jew is someone that follows torah as well, and make no mistake, the like of hitler and islamofacists will not make a distinction between the two

Your hidden insinuations towards me are quite transparent, but it doesn´t really bother me, as I think they are funny. I will never consider those who have no Israelite genes to be Jewish. They weren´t there 2000 years ago when Jews had to confront Romans. They don´t share our history. They are outsiders and intruders. I know I am not the only one who thinks like this, maybe one of the few who has the guts to say it. Religious Jews abandoned half-Jews and quarter-Jews during Holocaust, because some of their mothers weren´t Jewish. They received help from the Nazis, rather than religious Jews. (read Mark Bryan Riggs´ book about their horrible stories) That´s what can happen when you don´t appreciate Jewish ethnicity, only religion.