Her mother converted to marry her stepfather and she was raised Jewish, I believe. (I don't watch the show either, but it came up in conversation a couple years ago XD)
Oh, interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about that. (In the sense that sometimes shows lump all kinds of "minority-ness" onto one character in an attempt at diversity.)
It would be interesting if she actually practiced Judaism, but what little I know of her is that she's cynical--doesn't strike me as a believer of any kind.
I think Cristina's Jewishness came up when she was engaged to Burke - he wanted a church wedding or something. I haven't watched the show in a couple years so I don't know if they ever did anything more with it. I must admit though that non-Ashkenazi Jews (Eastern European) are a bullet-proof kink for me. I love to see depictions outside the usual Hollywood definitions.
I followed links on the purimgifts profile and somehow found myself reading Kita's post from 2007 about Jewish characters on television. I can definitely see the appeal of portraying Jews outside the Hollywood stereotype of "white (or passing as white), nerdy, funny boys with overbearing mothers". Something more than just the token Jewish character, whose culture and/or religion only gets a brief mention instead of being an integral part of who/what they are.
Christina was *raised* Jewish but considers herself an atheist now. Back from when I watched the show, I remember that she still identifies culturally as Jewish, but doesn't practice.
To be honest, though, Grey's has always been dreadful about depicting Judaism. There was one early episode where an Orthodox Jewish girl needed a valve replacement, but refused a pig valve because it wasn't kosher. And while I'm sure that the writers found this an absolutely fascinating thing to explore--what do you do when your religious beliefs threaten your life--it was all completely ridiculous, because in Judaism, there is also the law that you must disregard any other law if your life is in danger. If it's a fast day, like Yom Kippur, but your doctor told you that you must eat, then you have to eat. If someone puts a gun to your head and says, "Eat this bacon sandwich," you eat that bacon sandwich. All the episode did was make Jews seem more bizarre and Other. "How could she possibly consider dying in order to uphold her strange beliefs?" it
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Thanks for the info :)
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To be honest, though, Grey's has always been dreadful about depicting Judaism. There was one early episode where an Orthodox Jewish girl needed a valve replacement, but refused a pig valve because it wasn't kosher. And while I'm sure that the writers found this an absolutely fascinating thing to explore--what do you do when your religious beliefs threaten your life--it was all completely ridiculous, because in Judaism, there is also the law that you must disregard any other law if your life is in danger. If it's a fast day, like Yom Kippur, but your doctor told you that you must eat, then you have to eat. If someone puts a gun to your head and says, "Eat this bacon sandwich," you eat that bacon sandwich. All the episode did was make Jews seem more bizarre and Other. "How could she possibly consider dying in order to uphold her strange beliefs?" it ( ... )
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