While there is some connection between Ashkenazi Jews and the original inhabitants of Judea, your own statements regarding the movement of men from Judea to Northern Italy to marry Italian women means Shlomo Sand is at least half-right. I mean how Jewish is someone who’s half Jewish genetically? And without a Jewish mother?

Of course it would depend on whether you think being Jewish is primarily cultural and religious or primarily tribal and genetic in nature.

Would the descendants of Judea of the Roman Empire not be found also among Palestinians Muslims nowadays?

Even as a child with just a few years of Bible study under my belt I was surprised that all of the kids I knew who were Jewish didn’t resemble the Mediterranean types that I knew in the Italian American community. Of course, Italian Americans are primarily drawn from Southern Italy and Sicily whereas the Northerners with famous names such as Fonda appear to be totally European.

Then someone explained to me that there were these Sephardic Jews who look like the Arabs. I said to myself that that doesn’t make any sense because the people of Judea have to be the people of Judea. So I asked myself: how did it come to be that the descendants of the Mediterranean group didn’t look Mediterranean?

Many decades of happenstance historical facts coming my way later, it seemed I had an answer to the questions that I had as an 8 year old.

And the answer would be that the notion of Jewish identity is not entirely an invention, it is partially an invention, as is the case with nearly all ethnic groups.

A very good article. I subbed at Berkeley High quite often for a few years.

One day, I was talking to some of the young guys about how to get invited to the Playboy Mansion. I forget how it came up, but I knew enough not to initiate such conversations. In any case, my advice consisted of telling them to set up some kind of club, vote to give Hugh Hefner an award, and that, as a result of that, they stood some chance of getting invited to the mansion.

Mostly, this was facetious. They were under 18 and this was not about to happen.

But, what did happen was that, about two-thirds of the way through, I got a bad feeling as if the young women in the room were listening in, and, not just for their enjoyment. I felt watched as if I could get reported on for…what?

As they filed out, one of the young men who had taken a particular liking to me (I was popular there as a sub) told me flat-out that the girls simply didn’t want the boys discussing sex at all…

This was in the late ’90s.

Sounds as if it has gotten worse.