This brings a bigger question: what does it mean to be genetically Jewish? But as these genetic databases grow, genetic identity is re-shaping not only how we understand ourselves, but how we can be identified by others. In the United States, white nationalists have channeled the ideals of racial purity into an obsession with the reliability of direct-to-consumer DNA testing. There is a specific principle in Jewish law, he told me, that instructs rabbis not to undermine someone’s self-declared religious identity if that person has been accepted by a Jewish community. The central principle is that when it comes to Jewish identity, the most important determinants are social – trust, kinship, commitment – not biological.

Source: The Guardian June 13, 2019 04:52 UTC