on being Jewish... or not

Upon further investigation, there is no conclusive evidence one way or another. As earlier recounted, a great aunt of mine, related through marriage to my maternal grandmothers brother, went to Europe and returned with the news that we were Jewish. This news was greeted with jeers, dismissed as an attempt on her part to upset people.

Today there seems to be much less resistence to the idea of being Jewish, the same stigma does not seem to adhere to the notion. One cousin of mine has lived in the city of New York for a long time, which of course has the largest concentration of semites in the US. He informs me that when he examines pictures of my grandmother in her twenties he feels that her being Jewish is beyond doubting.

However, technically, we would not be considered Jewish, because Jewishness is passed through the mother, and my maternal great-grandfather- the purported Jew who wished to leave persecution behind- married a woman named Standish.

Perhaps we should simply let that lay then. Quite obviously if my great-grandfather was Jewish he wished to come here and leave that behind, to avoid persecution. And while it seems interesting to me at this point to examine this question, the fact is that being Jewish is not always popular or - sorry to say it- safe. After all, Kike was one of the K's in KKK.