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I read a paper by some muslim cleric justifying the murdering of civilians in Israel. Jewish babies grow up and everybody is Israel is required to server time in the military.

However not all Israelis are Jews. Israel also has Arab, Christian, and Muslim citizens. There are Arab members of the Knesset, Israeli parliament. There are even Jews for Jesus and Jews for Allah.

Falcon

Orthodox rabbis get to choose who is Jewish.

Not true. Orthodox rabbis do not choose who is Jewish. Orthodox rabbis set the standard for what they regard as Jewish, and anyone who meets the standard they regard as Jewish. Their standard is very simple:

- Anyone born of a Jewish mother is Jewish OR

Rashi may have seized upon the asymmetry of the grammar by saying "note that it does not say 'and she will turn your son away from following Me'..." Dvarim 7:3 (this text will be in a soon coming reading). However, there is a question of handling that text by older sages. In T.B. Kiddushin 68b, the same text is quoted resulting in all Gentile women being branded as 'of the seven (Canaanite) nations'. The rejoinder was "It is true of all those who cause to turn away." The question that was never asked is "What if there is one who does not cause to turn away?" It was merely assumed a priori that any and all Gentile women will not raise their children as Jews (cf. Nehemia 10)

- Anyone going through an orthodox conversion is Jewish

There have been individuals who have been shunned despite the command in Torah to not shame a convert (Dvarim 10.19) among other reasons within the Torah proper (Shmot 22.20, Vayikra 25.17, et. al.). There are other admonitions arising from the process of determining other halachot; In the process of handling levirate marriage there are interesting rejoinders found in T.B. Yevamoth 10a and 63a: "for a convert is as a child newly born". ("Born again" was in the oral tradition recorded at least a century and a half before the Mishna was penned, one can only guess where it was committed to papyrus first~). One need only search for the cases where applications for Israeli citizenship had been rejected even though the petitioner presented a valid t'odat-gerut (conversion certificate).

Judaism does not have the concept of excommunication.

Baruch Spinoza, anyone? "Let all repent except for Acher (Elisha ben Abuya, suspected of holding Nazarene beliefs)". Want stories?

http://www.mjaa.org/
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/
http://www.umjc.org/

I don't necessarily agree with all of their views.

This may not seem odd or eccentric to non-Jews.

Doubtful. I'm pretty sure the Vatican sets the standard of who is Roman Catholic, and the Archbishop of Canterbury sets the standard of who is Anglican.

In the UK, possibly the three best well known rabbis in recent years are Lionel Blue, Jonathan Magonet and Julia Neuburger. All Reform. Who does the Government regard as being the "leader" of British Jewry? The Orthodox Chief Rabbi, head of a shrinking population of Orthodox who are actually observant.

Judaism is a religion without a formal hierarchy - there are no official leaders of Judaism. Many branches of Islam don't have an official leader either.

By comparison, Roman Catholics & Anglicans have a strict hierarchy, and the leaders are clearly defined.

The Christian world must be properly reminded that they are but franchisees and there comes a day when their franchise will be properly reviewed. What boils my potatoes more than all else is viewing people who they will not call Jews while alive, but will regard them as Jews in death only.

May those who fast, may it be easy.

Hashivenu !! vnashuvah
Chadesh yamenu kqedem

Ever heard of an athiest Jew. Your morality is likey passed off from some belife in a god even if you don't belive it yourself. Athiest Jews are prime examples of this. I would say you might be too.

Not specifically I haven't heard of an Atheist Jew, but as I've heard of Jews For Jesus, and Sabbatai Zevi, a Jew For Allah, I'm not surprized if there are atheistic Jews. Now as for my own beliefs and religious background, though I'm Roman Catholic, that what my mother is and religion is maternal based, at a young age I converted to Buddhism mentally but kept reading about other religions even taking comparative religion classes in college. So I have not believed in any supreme diety since I was little, no Buddhism doesn't have one. I did believe in a soul or spirit though. However this all changed more than 10 years ago, when I had an accident. After I came out of the coma though I recalled what I previously believed I no longer did believe them. I've been through more than 10 years of trying to meditate and pray and I no longer even believe in a soul or spirit.

". . . this is a part of my faith that I have increasingly taken seriously of being bi-cultural.. There was a time when I used to think how can I be Christian and yet Buddhist? Increasingly as I become aware of the extent to which my Japanese culture and its Buddhism is still a part of me, I'm beginning to say how can I be Christian without being Buddhist?''

I'm fairly sure that Jews for Jesus is different from the Messianic Judaism you describe. I've been to Baptist churches where representatives from Jews for Jesus were guest speaking (that could be argument enough considering Baptists tendancy to not welcome other religions in their services). Jews for Jesus is made up of people of Jewish descent who are Christians. They do not consider Judiasm their religion, though they do typically celebrate Jewish holidays. I think (this is where I'm just guessing) that they view Judiasm as a subset of Christianity.

The FAQ from their website may be of interest.

And all this is moot anyway, since the hewbrew word there does not denote viriginity. It means "young woman", and nothing more.

It definitely implies virginity. There are only 7 references to 'almah' in the OT, and four of those uses (Gen 24:43, Ex 2:8, Song 1:3, Song 6:8) refer to a "young woman" in a way that implies sexual innocence - someone who may be sexually experienced, but is generally assumed to be virginal; as one reference puts it, "the word clearly denotes a young woman who is not married but is of marriageable age... It is important to remember that in the Bible, a young Jewish woman of marriageable age was presumed to be chaste."

It's worth noting that the Septuagint translates "almah" in Isaiah 7:16 using "parthenos"; so, at least in some sense, the Alexandria Jews who translated the OT scriptures into Greek thought that the proper translation of "almah" in this case was, indeed, "virgin".

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