At 8:36 PM -0500 22/3/02, David Griffin wrote:

>In a message dated 3/22/2 12:37:29 PM, you wrote:
>
>>> >Further, Judaism is a religion rather than a
>>> >'race'.
>>>
>>> I'm sorry, but I find this to be a particularly anti-semitic statement.
>>
>>Well... then why did you use the term anti-semitic instead of the term
>>anti-Jewish?
>>
>>martin
>
>You'd prefer for your statement to be called "anti-Jewish"? Fine, then. You
>can call it whatever you want. In fact, it is the extreme Zionists who
>promote this kind of anti-semitism by sponsoring the idea that there is
>something inherently "Jewish" about Israel.

You haven't answered the question though, why did you claim it was "anti-Semitic" to observe that Judaism is a religion?

You don't seem to be claiming its a racial distinction, but a cultural one. I must admit I'm rather ignorant about the issue, but I'd like to get an understanding.

Now I understand that, historically speaking, culture has often been indistinguishable from  religion. In general terms that is, as I say I know very little about the culture/history and religion of Judaism. (Not a big reader of the Bible I'm afraid.) Religion, it seems to me, is nothing more than a way of transmitting cultural traditions from one generation to another. In my personal opinion, an anachronistic method, since dogmatic transmission of cultural values doesn't permit sufficient critical evaluation and amendment of cultural values to take account of changing circumstances. But that's another question.

The point is that religion (or dogma) is merely how cultural values are transmitted, so to assert, as you do, that Judaism is NOT just a religion, but a cultural tradition, doesn't seem to  actually change anything. All religions are cultural traditions, are they not?

But back to the question - why did you use the term "anti-Semitic". My understanding is that "Semite" *is* a racial label. Forgive my ignorance if I've got that wrong, but I'd like to be corrected if I am. I don't have any idea how "Semitic" is defined, but I had a vague notion that it refers broadly to the supposed racial characteristics of indigenous people of the middle-east. So this whole argument is going over my head, but then I've never understood why hatred or discrimination against Jews was referred to as "anti-Semitic".

In either case, I can't see how it could be "anti-Semitic", or "anti-Jewish", to say that Judaism is a religion rather than a race. Even if you were arguing that Judaism is a racial label, which I don't understand you to be doing.

Again, forgive my abysmal ignorance of these matters. But this is going way over my head.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas