Am Hanivchar, again

[onionsoupmix]

 
There is a popular argument for the veracity of Judaism and it goes something like this.

The Jews have survived for so long in galus. A small nation, a tiny fraction of the world's population, statistically speaking, the Jews should have long ago been assimilated or destroyed. And yet, through all the Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms and Holocausts

Comments

[ruchel]

I'm under the impression that the Karaites used the "we're Jewish but not really" and were left alone by the Germans... unless I am mixing up with another kind?

[bringing_peace]

may I ask

1. how did the Germans get to Karaites - weren't they all in Israel at the time?

2. what does this have to do with the original post? - I just don't see the connection.....

[onionsoupmix]

I don't know of any group that used the "we're Jewish but not really" argument and were left alone by Nazis. They don't seem like the type that would have gone for that sort of reasoning.

[alexcohn]

This happened at least in one location, Lithuania (Lita). There was a Karaite community around the town Trakai (Troki), and when the Nazis came, they wanted to know whether the Karaim should be exterminated with the Jews. The story goes, they asked a respected Orthodox rabbi. This rabbi, having understood the bottom line, lied(*) that Karaim were not Jewish, and hence helped these Jews survive.
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(*) - the Karaim in Russia (in Crimea and Lita) used to claim, in XIX century, that they were not Jewish, or to be more precise that the Jews were not Jewish, while the Karaim were. The "rabbinic" Jews were arguing the opposite.

[onionsoupmix]

Again, I don't see how Karaim are Jewish acc. to halacha, if they hold to patrilineal descent.

[alexcohn]

from http://www.daat.ac.il/encyclopedia/value.asp?id1=2319:

קראים כישראלים הם, ואסור לומר להם שיעשו מלאכה ביו"ט (משפטי שמואל סי' קל"ד בנימין זאב סי' ת"ו ות"ז)

Also, http://www.kipa.co.il/ask/show/147257 cites Ovadia Yosef to say that Karaites may marry Jews without giur, but after they "learn our prayers and customs".

[24816]

thanks for update!
-FI

[antidos]

Go to any rabbanut and try to marry a karaite without giyur :) Don't make me laugh.