Tell me more ×
Mi Yodeya is a question and answer site for those who base their lives on Jewish law and tradition and anyone interested in learning more. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

Are Jews racist against non-Jews?

share|improve this question
1  
This question is not clear. If it's asking about Judaism, it's redundant to judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/7792. If it's asking about Jews, an answer will require evidence of a sociological study (and none of the current answers address it). If the asker wants to edit the question to reflect his intent, that'd be great: meanwhile, I'm closing as not a real question. – msh210♦ Dec 19 '11 at 17:03
I only mate with women, does that mean I am sexist? – Jim Thio Mar 21 at 12:57

closed as not a real question by msh210♦ Dec 19 '11 at 17:03

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

5 Answers

up vote 14 down vote

No. If we were racist, then we would never be able to accept converts.

share|improve this answer
See the Kuzari on his perspective on converts... – Curiouser Dec 19 '11 at 15:42
@Curiouser not everyone follows that opinion. – Hacham Gabriel Jan 24 '12 at 1:17
1  
@Curiouser what's his perspective? – Shmuel Brin May 3 '12 at 5:43
up vote 10 down vote

Whether or not there are Jews who are racist against non-Jews, the Torah places value on all human life. This is, after all, the message of Sefer Yonah where G-d sends a prophet to a non-Jewish nation to provoke them to repent and be spared destruction for their sins.

At the same time Torah teaches that Jews have a special relationship with G-d which non-Jews do not. As others have mentioned a non-Jew may joint the covenant and gain such a relationship, but since there is an ethnic component some people are going to be uncomfortable about this notion.

What matters is the truth value of our special relationship with Hashem (and the various rights and responsibilities which accompany it) rather than whether it can be branded with a derogatory name. Terminology can help us analyze and evaluate ideas, or it can be misused to hastily and thoughtlessly lump together seemingly similar concepts without paying attention to very real and significant distinctions.

share|improve this answer
bible.cc/leviticus/19-13.htm says that jews shouldn't rob their neighbor. The word neighbor means fellow jews. Does that mean robbing christians are okay? In Israel, that's not the case. But David seems to kill plenty of philistines unprovoked. So what about them? At that time, were jews rasicst toward the philistines? – Jim Thio Nov 15 '11 at 4:47
While the Biblical prohibition you mention certainly is a prohibition against stealing from Jews, stealing from non-Jews is certainly prohibited. – Yirmeyahu Dec 18 '11 at 3:18
@Yimeryahu So how come David kill a bunch of philistines just to collect their foreskin? I understand that at that time everyone is like that and I am not really blaming. Jews are not racists, at least not a lot. Most people are no longer racists anyway. Ancient judaism seems rascist though. That's assuming that that Dave do not open circumcision clinic with consensual philistines males lining up. – Jim Thio Dec 18 '11 at 4:42
Your assertion that David's killing of Philistines was unprovoked is incorrect. They were a nation at war with Israel, as most people know being familiar with the story of David and Goliath only a few chapters earlier (1 Sam 17). No one says war is pretty, but it is classically, a fight between two nations. – Yirmeyahu Dec 18 '11 at 6:59
You're right. War isn't pretty. That's my point. Everybody was racist at that time and area. Including jews. Racism is just one of so many nash equilibrium people use to divide us and others while justifying screwing "others". At that time, and till 60 years ago, it's simply the popular one. Saying that ancient judaism was not racist is like saying they had women suffrage and "civil unions". – Jim Thio Dec 18 '11 at 10:48
show 3 more comments
up vote 6 down vote

When a family member needs assistance that takes precedence. It does not mean you are racist if you care first for your family member prior to everyone else. Even though that is the case, Hatzoloh or Chaverim do not ask you when you call them if you are a Jew. They help anyone who requests it.

share|improve this answer
+1 makes sense. Racism is only dangerous when governments get involved anyway. – Jim Thio Dec 18 '11 at 4:43
@JimThio Racism is dangerous in any and all cases. – HodofHod Feb 14 '12 at 22:57
@HodofHod If I am a racist and I refuse to let chinese into my site, then I would lost 1.2 billions potential customers. It hurt my self. When government act, whether out of racism or not, it hurt others. Minimum wage destroy black people. Affirmative action destroy whites. It destroy every body. Fascism is evil. Government, socialism, feminism are all fascists. Racism without government is just personal preference. I am not racist nor would I encourage it. But I would advice that people shouldn't be racists because it's stupid. Not evil. – Jim Thio Feb 15 '12 at 7:09
@JimThio Assuming that your site is actually useful, then you would also be hurting any of the Chinese that wanted to use it. Besides, that's not even what I was referring to. A violent racist does not need the backing of government to kill or damage. – HodofHod Feb 15 '12 at 15:26
My point is, without being rascists, government hurts. Even racist people can't do anything on libertarian society. A violent racists are just like violent robbers. It's the violence, not the racism that's the problem. That being said, the racists will have harder time getting friends. I pitty them more than hate them. – Jim Thio Feb 16 '12 at 1:37
show 1 more comment
up vote 3 down vote

We are commanded not to hate the Egyptians, who enslaved us. If we're not allowed to hate our captors, then we aren't allowed to hate any race of people.

share|improve this answer
We are commanded to hate Amalek. Incidentally, the Sudilkover Rebbe shlita says that this is the only thing a Jew is permitted to hate. – yoel Aug 8 '11 at 19:30
2  
Curious... where is the commandment written? :P I think you will find that no halacha involves שונא (hate) – avi Aug 8 '11 at 20:27
1  
@avi: see Rambam sefer hamitzvot. Positive commandment 189: daat.ac.il/daat/mahshevt/hamitsvot/ase5-2.htm . There he says that the commandment to "Remember What Amalek did to you" is the commandment to never stop hating Amalek. – Menachem Aug 8 '11 at 20:45
In theory, but in practice, who'se Amalek? There's nobody to hate. – zaq Aug 8 '11 at 21:56
@zaq -- there is no reason to think that Amalek doesn't still exist. The Rambam notes that the 7 Cananite nations no longer exist, but he makes no such observation about Amalek. – Curiouser Aug 8 '11 at 23:50
show 14 more comments
up vote -12 down vote

I think there is some objective way to measure racism. One way is to measure how much business loss you would pay to accommodate your racist preferences.

Say I am hiring a massage therapist. A native indonesian that's equally pretty cost 1/3th of a chinese. If I still occasionally hire the chinese therapists, am I racist? Yea. By a factor of 3. However, Uzbekistan's therapists cost even more and they're not that hot. So I guess chinese do practices some form of reverse racism.

However, that's still not a good indicator. Different jobs tend to have different racist preferences. For example, I like to hire a chinese wife rather than a native indonesian wife. That is even though a chinese wife would cost more than Indonesian.

Am I racist? Stupidly yea. I found that out latter. However, we need to take into account facist laws in my country making it difficult to have kids outside formal marriage where price and terms are set by the state.

What about if we're not hiring a wife but something less personal. Something like cooking sushi. Am I racist if I insist on hiring chinese cooks instead of cheaper non chinese cooks.

Guess what? Even I am not that racist. It hurts my wallet. Why would I?

Jews are.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3499855,00.html

However, sushi eateries and other Asian restaurants in Israel are currently facing a threat: By next January, the government intends to expel all Asian employees at ethnic restaurants in order to make room for Israeli workers.

"We didn't invent the method of Asian chefs at ethnic restaurants," says renowned Israeli restaurateur Israel Aharoni. "It's common all over the world, but only here we see such sweeping limitations being imposed."

Industry experts fear that the expulsion of foreign restaurant workers would lead to the closure of many restaurants. At this time, the High Court of Justice is dealing with a petition on the matter filed by Israel's ethnic restaurant association.

The laws insist that sushi must be cooked by fellow jews and east asian immigrants will just have to go.

Note: Is ancient judaism is racist? I think jews, like christians just want to reconcile ancient judaism with whatever prevailing politically correct norms they want to promote. C'mon guys. As sure as we know that ancient judaism did not have women suffrage, birth control, DNA based paternity tests (instead of stoning), or legal same sex marriage, I know they're about as racist as everyone else in that area and time. That is, very.

share|improve this answer
2  
There are many issues with your answer, and I won't begin to go into all of them. The biggest problem seems to be that you equate Israeli laws and practices with Jewish ones. They are not the same. – HodofHod Mar 26 '12 at 2:54
As someone point out. Is it wrong to take care of your own family/race first before others. No. Is it racism? Yes. So what? What's evil is not racism. What's evil is government's intervention. Most humans are only 1-2% racists. They'll prefer to hire races they hate if it's cheaper by $1/hour. It's government intervention that make anything poisonous. Am I sexist if I only want to mate with female? Yes. So what? Sorry if I offend anyone. Condemning racism is thought police. It's nonsense. – Jim Thio Mar 31 '12 at 9:32
Actually my better point is that jews are relatively less racists than say, the muslims, though not completely not. Another point is it's not that big of a deal. Deep inside, we are all psychopaths anyway. – Jim Thio Apr 11 '12 at 10:03

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.