Thursday, 11 August 2016

Confessions of a Prodigal Daughter,
Sarahbeth Caplin, Createspace, 2015, page 43

Sarahbeth Caplin is an American writer; Jewish but not Jewish. Writing about her struggles with Jewish identity, she says:

Part of me hopes I never get too comfortable 'acting Christian.' It would feel as if I'd lost whatever strands of Judaism I still have left to claim. My Jewish identity, I quickly discovered, is not something I can easily change like a pair of socks. My Jewish identity is as permanent to my as my skin, hair, eye colour, my right-handedness and my blood type. I see the world through Jewish-coloured lenses; I don't know how not to.

That said, she doesn't now see herself as a Jew:

Following Jesus always comes with a cost, and for me that cost is giving up my right to call myself a Jew. I've met Christians who insist I can have it both ways . I can call myself a Christian by faith, a Jew by heritage . but to insist I'm still Jewish feels intellectually dishonest.

That's straight down the line.