This was originally a comment to another post, but I believe it deserves it's own post as a topic of discussion as it is vitally important to recognize the contributions of the Jewish community to our present freedoms and benefits.
Actually, it is thanks to the Jews that we enjoy many of the freedoms and benefits we enjoy today.
Jews have been at the forefront of civil rights and social justice programs for decades. It's thanks to the Jews that homosexual and transgender people no longer have to hide for fear of discrimination. It's thanks to the Jews that minorities aren't treated as second class citizens anymore. It's thanks to the Jews that we no longer have religious (Christian) censorship of print, film, and other media. It's thanks to the Jews that women are allowed to use birth control after two thousand years of religious (Christian) oppression. It's thanks to the Jews that the Rich white men have to work harder to lie to the public to start foreign wars, take away civil rights, and end benefit programs which help the poor.
We owe the Jews a lot.>
Defining a Jew is a lot like defining a woman these days. You'll get some responses based in reality but a lot of responses from the smoke and mirrors land of make believe.
I worked with a guy who told me he was half Jewish, that his mother was Jewish, and that specifically she was not religious at all but that her parents were. His father was a catholic raised white guy.
Some people will tell you that my coworker was a Jew, and among those people they will have different reasons for claiming that. Some people will tell you my coworker was not a Jew, and again their reasonings will vary.
This is why the obsession with "Jews" is pretty pointless, in the same ironic way that nazi Germany wound up acting like communists with their desperate paranoid purgings in their battle.. against communism.
Basically you can easily figure out who the baddies are without having to argue over whether or not they are "Jews" especially since it doesn't matter anyway, baddies are baddies.
It makes a lot more sense to have certain qualms with certain governments, including Israel. I don't care if they worship a furby, they shouldn't get such special treatment. It's not like Ukraine's special treatment is "okay" so long as they aren't "Jews", the special treatment itself is the problem. That government obviously shouldn't be getting billions of dollars, we know what's really going on with that.