Clearly they're not excluding, so "geeks" are people and "spanish" are people, but you can still be a "spanish geek". So I ask again, more clearly: what conditions are necessary and sufficient to qualify as a "Jew"? I was only aware of the racial (which you argue doesn't exist, I'm no anthropologist so dunno) and religious ones (which you argue isn't valid), so I'm all ears.
I am sorry, but if you don't understand what a "people" or a "nation" are, it will be very difficult to talk to you.
You are thinking in terms of race, and I don't understand that view. I am thinking in terms of nations and you don't know what a nation is.
We hold different definitions of "country", then. Mine is legal, and the country of Israel didn't legally exist until 1948.
Again, the country if Israel did legally exist from 1300 BCE until the Assyrian invasion and then again as a client kingdom of first the Persian and then the Greek/Roman Empire.
Then came nearly 2000 years of foreign rule until World War 1 when Israel became a British territory which became independent in 1948.
Jews existed before then, of course, but tying both definitions together would mean there could be no such thing as a "jewish french" or "non-jewish israeli" which holds problems of its own.
I think you have problems not only with the concept of a nation but also with the difference between a country and a nation.
There are Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis. Specifically there are Israeli citizens of Jewish nationality, Arab nationality, Armenian nationality, Druze (another Arab) nationality, and Circassian nationality.
Similarly that are Russian citizens of Russian nationality, of Jewish nationality, of Karelian nationality, of German nationality and so on. The nationality is specified in the passport.
In Turkey, per its constitution, you have Turkish citizens of Turkish nationality, Greek nationality, Armenian nationality, and Jewish nationality. The Kurds are not recognised as a nation in Turkey.
In Iraq you have Arab nationals, Kurdish nationals, Assyrian nationals, and Turkmen nationals, all recognised by Iraqi citizenship law.
In Morocco there are Arabs, Jews, and Imazighen (Berbers), three different nationalities.
In Germany most German citizens are of German nationality but there are also Sinti and Roma and Sorbs, Danes, and Frisians. Each have their own language and culture and are recognised as nations sharing German citizenship in Germany. (Jews are not recognised as a nation in Germany.)
In the United States there are US citizens of American nationality (your average American), non-citizens of American nationality (for example inhabitants of American Samoa or their descendants), and American citizens who are not American nationals but belong to a recognised Indian tribe.
Israel, the Jewish nation state, is as tied to Jewish nationality as Germany, the German nation-state, is to the German nationality. Although both countries have citizens of other nationalities.
1. Not all individuals of German nationality are German citizens. (For example there are individuals of German nationality who live in Russia. They could immigrate to Germany and get German citizenship on account of their German nationality.)
2. Not all German citizens are of German nationality. (For example the Sorbs, a slavic people, are German citizens but of Sorbian nationality. Please don't confuse them with Serbs or Serbia.)
1. Not all individuals of Jewish nationality are Israeli citizens. (For example American Jews or European Jews might not have Israeli citizenship. But they could immigrate to Israel and get Israeli citizenship on account of their Jewish nationality.)
2. Not all Israeli citizens are of Jewish nationality. (For example the Negev and Galil Bedouins are of Arab nationality but became Israeli citizens in 1952 (technically in 1948 but because of war and discriminatory practices it took years to get the ID cards and passports printed).
None of this has anything to do with race. If a man from Africa (who is black) becomes a German citizen he will also acquire German nationality and the result will be a black man of German nationality. An Ethiopian Jew is black but of Jewish nationality. A Negev Bedouin is white but not of Jewish nationality. (Although some Bedouins are Jewish but that's another subject.) An Ethiopian non-Jew is black but not of Jewish nationality (but belongs to one of the many Semitic and Cushitic peoples who live in Ethiopia).
My reading of MLK's quote is that he meant he wanted people to be judged as individuals and not what their "group" had done, which would run counter to your idea of praising the achievements of the jewish people
MLK's point was not that you shouldn't recognise the achievements of a nation or group but that such achievements have nothing to do with their skin colour.
I know, but my point was: *you*, the individual, lived through that but not the Spanish Inquisition, *they* the individuals lived through the Spanish Inquisition but not the events you described. Why put them all together? why not recognize the merits of *individuals* instead of seeing people as, well, "people" in the plural, whatever your definition of that is?
Those events are not unrelated and it makes no sense to see them in isolation.
I can learn from the experiences of my ancestors and because I did I knew how to handle these situations. I can celebrate the fact that they survived as I hope that later generations will celebrate the fact that I survived.
Heck, Americans celebrate Thanks-Giving. Is that not a national holiday that celebrates the (perceived) achievements of your nation? What about Independence Day? Are you George Washington? Probably not. But can you celebrate his victory because it is also yours? I would say so. What about Labour day? Celebrate the achievements of the American labour movement? Why not?
Every nation has its national holidays that remind individuals of the achievements of the nation. I don't get why this is wrong when Jews do it. Or do you think it is wrong to celebrate Independence Day?
