Jewish Identity Quotes

“Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. Who knows, it might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and that reason alone do we have to suffer now. We can never become just Netherlanders, or just English, or representatives of any country for that matter; we will always remain Jews, but we want to, too.”
― Anne Frank

“Are you going to wolf out and eat me now?"
"Certainly not, you'd be stringy and hard to digest."
"But kosher."
"I'll be sure to point any Jewish lycanthropes in your direction.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes

“When the time comes, they won't ask what kind of a Jew you are.”
― Norman Mailer

“[F]or me, being a Jew means feeling the tragedy of yesterday as an inner oppression. On my left forearm I bear the Auschwitz number; it reads more briefly than the Pentateuch or the Talmud and yet provides more thorough information. It is also more binding than basic formulas of Jewish existence. If to myself and the world, including the religious and nationally minded Jews, who do not regard me as one of their own, I say: I am a Jew, then I mean by that those realities and possibilities that are summed up in the Auschwitz number.”
― Jean Amery, At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and its Realities

“From the lowest depths of his jail cell, Joseph identifies himself for the first time with forefathers, reconnecting to his heritage despite being cut off from his family for years. Despite living in a foreign land alone amidst a foreign people, Joseph declares that he has remained true to his people’s core values. One of those values is gratitude, and for the first time Joseph acknowledges that his talents are God-given rather than earned. He has ended up in prison because of unwavering gratitude to a human master who selflessly cared for him, a devotion that mirrors his gratitude to the Divine Master. In this terrible low moment, Joseph sounds fulfilled for the first time in his life, as the principled decision to accept imprisonment provides an uplifting sense of purpose. With renewed appreciation for God’s care, Joseph challenges his fellow inmates to reject backstabbing pagan deities whose flaring egos drive them to relentlessly pursue self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. As humans naturally emulate the characteristics of their deities, Joseph prefers an ethical and compassionate Divine Mentor.”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“Many races as well as cultural influences of men of all kinds have mixed into any man. To select, for approbation the peculiar elements that come from some supposedly Jewish heredity is to open the door to all kinds of nonsense on racial theory.”
― Richard Feynman

“Did I know that the reason Hitler had been able to slaughter six million Jews without too much complaint from the world was that for two thousand years the world had been taught that Jews, not Romans, had killed that man?”
― Chaim Potok, My Name Is Asher Lev

“[...] ero una biografia in moto perpetuo, memoria sino al midollo delle ossa.”
― Philip Roth, American Pastoral

“Scrivere ti trasforma in una persona che sbaglia sempre. La perversione che ti spinge a continuare è l’illusione che un giorno, forse, l’imbroccherai. Che cos’altro potrebbe farlo? Come per tutti i fenomeni patologici, non ti rovina completamente la vita.”
― Philip Roth, 미국의 목가 1

“L’immagine che abbiamo l’uno dell’altro. Strati e strati d’incomprensione. L’immagine che abbiamo di noi stessi. Vana. Presuntuosa. Completamente distorta. Ma noi tiriamo dritto e viviamo di queste immagini. «Lei è così, lui è così, io sono così. È andata così per questi motivi…» Basta.”
― Philip Roth, American Pastoral

“Sì, siamo soli, profondamente soli, e in serbo per noi, sempre, c’è uno strato di solitudine ancora più profondo. Non c’è nulla che possiamo fare per liberarcene. No, la solitudine non dovrebbe stupirci, per sorprendente che possa essere farne l’esperienza. Puoi cercare di tirar fuori tutto quello che hai dentro, ma allora non sarai altro che questo: vuoto e solo anziché pieno e solo.”
― Philip Roth, American Pastoral

“Those names, Ari and Sol - what is it about Jewish trans men that we all have to reach back to our roots, as if they are the only source of nourishment we have left?”
― Isaac Fellman, Dead Collections

“Nessuno passa attraverso la tristezza, il dolore, la confusione e la perdita senza restare segnato in qualche modo.”
― Philip Roth, American Pastoral

“This undying vigilance is such a part of the Jewish psyche that it might as well be genetic. Nomads we are, and nomads we remain. Cars replaced caravans, tents calcified into houses, yet the wanderings of old course through us, simmering under the surface.”
― Lev Golinkin, A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir

“Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear. Of course no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews.”
― Philip Roth, The Plot Against America

“The pages of the magazine Mother Earth that Emma Goldman edited from 1906 to 1917 are filled with Yiddish stories, tales from the Talmud, and translations of Morris Rosenfeld’s poetry. Moreover, her commitment to anarchism did not divert her from speaking and writing, openly and frequently, about the particular burdens Jews faced in a world in which antisemitism was a living enemy. Apparently, Emma Goldman’s faith in anarchism, with its emphasis on universalism, did not result from and was not dependent on a casting off of Jewish identity.”
― Gerald Sorin, The Prophetic Minority: American Jewish Immigrant Radicals, 1880-1920

“I wake the dawn as if to say that the dawn doesn't wake me up!”
― King David

“Your emotions are your power. Anyone or anything that puts distance between you and your emotions is putting distance between you and your power.”
― Moshi Kubrick

“True love is a full-time job. It requires using good judgment.”
― Moshi Kubrick

“ولكن سمعان لم يسعَ كغيره من اليهود وراء جنسيَّةٍ أجنبيَّة، هل لهذا السبب أحبَّ البيرة؟ لأنها مثله ومثل بني قومه، لا يمكن خَلطُها مع أيِّ شيءٍ آخر، اليهودي لا يبحث سوى عن الرغوة الغَنيَّة الطافية على سطح البيرة، مجرَّد جدارٍ فاصِلٍ يَعصِمه من العالم الذي لم يَتقبَّله يومًا إلَّا في ظروف استثنائية، كان يجب أن يبتعد اليهوديُّ عن الطريق، يُنحَّى جانبًا ليفسح المجال للأطهار من المسلمين المارِّين، وبطرطور فوق الرأس كما كان الحال أيام المماليك، ما الفرق بين الطرطور والطاليت (شال الصلاة)؟ وما سوف يَستَجِدُّ من أدواتٍ لتمييز هذا العِرْق؟ بل وكل عِرقٍ يخالف الأغلبية السائدة المتناغِمَة؟”
― غادة العبسي, كوتسيكا

“What we fail to teach our children and what the community fails to see is that we
need inclusion and acceptance, not superficial chesed. I’m not looking for someone to
come and sit with my child, call her cute and feel like they’ve done something good.
No, I need people to come alongside us during the hard times as well. You don’t just
get to host my child for a meal or a night and check a box that you’ve done
integration. True acceptance is completely integrating my child in all aspects of
society.”
― Jodi Samuels, Chutzpah, Wisdom and Wine: The Journey of an Unstoppable Woman

“Israel is the only place in the world with a Jewish majority. Some believe this is important to give a voice in the global and political sphere to a whole group of people who have historically been persecuted. For some, it comes down to safety.”
― Haley Neil, Once More with Chutzpah

“On the one hand, I don’t know a single person who says, “Yay! Purim is my favorite holiday!”

On the other hand, if there’s any holiday concept more Jewish than “Here’s the awful story of what happened to your great-great-grandmother. Have a cookie.” I don’t know what it is.”
― Arinn Dembo

“Ken sos tu? I am Rebecca (Rivka, Rebekah) from my mother’s mother and the wife of Isaac in the Bible. The name means “to tie firmly” or “to snare,” which is why—or so her mother used to tell her when she struggled at sewing—she could, with practice, become skilled with a needle and thread. I am Camayor, from my mother’s father, Behor Camayor of blessed memory, and also Cohen, high priests descended from the sons of Aaron, a name
she feels she must live up to, though she’ll hide it as needed and may God forgive her. I am from the pomegranate tree my father planted at my birth, from my nuns in white habits, my staircase
with the worn ninth tread, the candlelight reflected in my fingernails. I am a gypsy girl, because to have no home place had once seemed romantic and she could do the dance, just as she could climb ropes at gymnastics, rising and lowering at will. Or was it actually that home, back then, was everywhere?”
― Elizabeth Graver, Kantika

“I recoil. He thinks his words are true, but he doesn't understand what it means to be a Jew, the way we protect ourselves and each other how we ensure Jewish continuity by marrying within our faith. He
doesn't know we honor the memory of the many Jews who died 'al kiddush Hashem'-sanctifying God's name- in order to preserve our traditions. He doesn't know that Jews always come out battered, bruised, but still triumphant. Because we believe in God, in community, in compassion, and in the power of our people to endure. His words hurt but they don't scratch the surface of what I am, what we are.”
― Rena Rossner, The Sisters of the Winter Wood

“Unless being a Jew is of absolute significance how can we justify the ultimate price which our people was often forced to pay throughout its history?”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism

“I wanted to keep her from slipping out of my life.
I wanted to squeeze the Alzheimer's right out of her.
I wanted us to be who we once were.
None of that could happen.
But at least, from that day on, when words alluded Jane, hugs took their place.

From CARE FOR THE CARER, AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR”
― Jeff Camhi

“You can't be serious. Your temple was destroyed two thousand years ago and you're grieving today?” Yes, as if it had happened only yesterday. “A lot of people have told me the Jews were crazy,” she said. “They were right.” Yes, we're crazy. “It's human nature to forget what hurts you, isn't it? Wasn't forgetfulness a gift of the gods to the ancient world? Without it, life would be intolerable, wouldn't it?” Yes, but the Jews live by other rules. For a Jew, nothing is more important than memory. He is bound to his origins by memory. It is memory that connects him to Abraham, Moses and Rabbi Akiba. If he denies memory he will have denied his own honor. “So you insist on keeping all your wounds open?” Those wounds exist; it is therefore forbidden and unhealthy to pretend that they don't.”
― Elie Wiesel, The Forgotten

“Who are you and who am I to set ourselves up as judges of an ancient people, and furthermore our own?”

“Who are you and who am I not to help an ancient people, and furthermore our own, refrain from serious error? Their salvation may depend on it, and ours certainly does!”
― Elie Wiesel, The Forgotten

“For all with the courage to explore, God awaits.”
― David J. Wolpe, Why Be Jewish?