When fundamentalists seize the limelight, the center seems progressive.
Your grandmother's last name would be useful - some are more distinctively Jewish than others.
Germany was seeing a bit of a surge in religious anti-semitism at that time - "biographies" of Jesus were being written that implicated the Jews in his death, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be making its debut in Russia. A Jew may have converted to avoid persecution on those accounts, or simply to provide better professional opportunities for themselves and their children, as did the parents of Karl Marx.
If your hypothesis is correct then you do have a Jewish heritage you can lay claim to. Such heritage passes matrilineally in the eyes of Jewish Law (halakhah), so since it is your maternal grandmother we are discussing, your status would be the same as hers.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-09-11 09:39 pm (UTC)Your grandmother's last name would be useful - some are more distinctively Jewish than others.
Germany was seeing a bit of a surge in religious anti-semitism at that time - "biographies" of Jesus were being written that implicated the Jews in his death, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be making its debut in Russia. A Jew may have converted to avoid persecution on those accounts, or simply to provide better professional opportunities for themselves and their children, as did the parents of Karl Marx.
If your hypothesis is correct then you do have a Jewish heritage you can lay claim to. Such heritage passes matrilineally in the eyes of Jewish Law (halakhah), so since it is your maternal grandmother we are discussing, your status would be the same as hers.