Jews and Race in the United States - Essay Example

History has it that Jews entered America years earlier than 1700s (Pattai and Pattai 27). They mainly immigrated to the Southern States of the US, where they were slave masters, big economists, planters and slave traders. As they continued to stay in America alongside increased immigration of other races into America, Jews related and liquidated with the new races as well as the original ones. These interrelations led to complication in identification of the Jews and to an extent tell whether Jews have a race or not.

With reference to Marcus, before 1790, American Constitution did not allow room for naturalization of impure white race(s) into America (3). Fascinatingly, by that time Jews who immigrated to America were white and thus got naturalized as citizens of the US. Today, determining Jews is a big problem that may require expertise of doctors to determine genetic makeup of the suspected Jews. Steinsaltz and Henegbi mention that in the 19th century, Jews were considered merely as religious group and not people belonging to any special race (1).

Jews were most known to be anti-Christian though they lived and originated from Israel believed to be birth place of Christ. The recruits into Judaism or Jews have to learn and adhere to the strict commandments of Torah. Jews constitute of diversity of races among them Africans, Asians and Europeans and as religion, every individual who join Judaism becomes an automatic Jew. From the prior review, Jews therefore disqualifies to be a race but rather a people sharing common beliefs. Unlike other races whose physical makeup changes when they mingle and live long with other races, Jews at all times despite the color variations are identical when certain physical characteristics are carefully speculated (Pattai and Pattai 30).

Jews are naturally promiscuous group who in the early 18th centuries when they dominated as slave masters in the US, copulated with Negros in the Southern part of America to produce intermediary races or just Negro. The Jews also intermarried with the some of the European races like the Irish, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons among others. The intermarriages produce individuals of varied races depending on the Jew’s intermarrying partner. Among the characteristics used to determine Jews is the self-hatred psychology.

As observed by Goldstein, Jews will easily be identified from their motives towards the Semites, they are always anti-Semites and this is a common attitude in every descendant of Jew in spite of color (10). Goldstein indicates that the facial appearance of the Jews that makes them easily identified, resemble that of a black African (5). First, Jews are characterized by muzzled-shaped mouth that does not resemble any race. Second, Jews have small chins, projected mouth and closely packed eyes.

Jews are also at times in America, viewed as cultural people who share certain cultural and social beliefs. Jews are like a family believing in the same orders and rules. This aspect was also dominant in the American history when the slave masters taught and influenced the slaves with their cultural practices and finally converting the slave Negros to adapt Jews concepts. Fishberg dictates that the spread and contamination of the original Jewish race was due to their capabilities of mixing and fitting in any environment despite of weather, culture and language differences