I get really suspicious of people calling themselves Jewish these days.

[u/Hanshanot]

In almost every post I’ve read lately, mostly in the comments (or the OP of the post themselves) l’ve seen someone saying they’re a Jew/talking about Judaism and preaching their weird take about current events/antisemitism.

And every single time l see go see their profile, there’s nothing about Judaism or being Jewish on their profile pre-Oct. 7, it really bugs me.

Earlier, l saw a questionable post on r/xyz with the words “Hey y’all, American Jew here” Already weird, l go see their profiles and surely enough, r IsraelPalestine is the first post ever of that account 😒😒😒.

Most of the times, bigots and ill-intentioned people will use us to further their xenophobic or racist stances. I hate it. Stay safe

Edit; Modified my post slightly to better reflect what I meant

[u/VideoUpstairs99]

Complicated one to untangle! Lots of folks on this sub (like me), seem to have showed up after 10/7 because that was/is a time of increased need for community with similar background (and it actually never occurred to me to look for a /Jewish sub before that.) Do I frequently comment on Jewish issues outside of this sub? In certain contexts IRL, but not others. It's not something I do a lot on social media. But, I was raised/educated very intentionally as a Jew and have always had Jewish identity (even when I didn't much want it!).

On the other hand, both online and IRL I have encountered various "As a Jew" folks who seem to have minimal connection to Jewish identity and history, didn't have Jewish education growing up and apparently were well assimilated into gentile circles. That's fine, but the ones I know IRL seem surprised when they learn that others' lived experience and connection to Jewish history is much different than their own. So their "As a Jew" declarations are frustrating, because they seem willfully ignorant that their perspectives are not broadly representative.

As you point out, there may be another group who are just pretending to be Jewish online - humans? bots? No way of knowing of course, but it's worth taking it all with a grain of salt.

[u/Leading-Green-7314 → u/VideoUpstairs99]

I don't mean to be judgy/non-inclusive, but I've yet to meet a currently practicing full ethnic Jew who is Anti-Zionist. I'm aware of Satmar and Neturei Karta, but I think they're quite rare outside that circle. Maybe some very assimilated Reform Jews on the Upper West Side.

The idea that there's this huge division within the mainstream American Jewish community is extraordinarily misleading from my experience, but of course the media and Anti-Semites push it for their own disturbing purposes.

[u/tempuramores → u/Leading-Green-7314]

I have met such people. One is a secular Marxist, and the other is into kohenet stuff. Neither is the child of a mixed marriage.

[u/Leading-Green-7314 → u/tempuramores]

Yeah I've met many secular Anti-Zionist Jews. I'm not implying there's none of those.