Why would I joke about it? There are many crypto-jews. John Kerry is one, pretended he was Irish, haha.
Have a look at the Wikipedia list of Jewish actors, we played a game where we tried to think of the actors not on the list, lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_actors
Why would you assume there are not jews posing as other faiths? There is nothing in judaism that says you can't confess a different faith and remain jewish.
Turkish Crypto-jews - From Wikipedia:
Dönmeh (Turkish: Dönme) refers to a group of crypto-Jews in the Ottoman Empire who, to escape the inferior condition of dhimmis, converted publicly to Islam, but were said to have retained their beliefs. The movement was historically centred in Salonica.[1] The group originated during and soon after the era of Sabbatai Zevi, a 17th-century Jewish kabbalist who claimed to be the Messiah and eventually converted to Islam in order to escape punishment by the Sultan Mehmed IV. After Zevi's conversion, a number of Jews followed him into Islam and became the Dönmeh. Since the 20th century, many Dönmeh have intermarried with other groups and most have assimilated into Turkish society. Although a few still consider themselves Jews, the Dönmeh are not officially recognized as such by Jewish authorities.[2]
Of course Wikipedia, being the internet research gatekeepers they are, play down the role of the Donmeh, who apparently became the young Turks and ordered the massacre of the Armenian Christians.
I've noticed you are skeptical of these ideas, but Jesus said don't judge by appearances - read this from an article on anti-semetism on the Chabad website. It was written by this guy:
Rabbi Manis Friedman, a noted Chassidic philosopher, author and lecturer, is dean of Bais Chanah Women's Institute of Jewish Studies
A Jew is therefore a G-dly being sent to this world on a mission. So the Jew experiences a certain discontent, which is unique to Jews, and the essence of that discontent is: "Why am I here? What am I doing here?" Every human being asks himself this question, because every human being has a desire to accomplish something. For an intelligent person, life has to make sense and have a purpose. But with a Jew it's slightly different. Intelligent beings ask, "How do we make the most of this existence?" The Jewish condition is that inwardly, consciously or unconsciously, we not only want to know how to make the best of life, but we don't understand why there's life at all. Everybody can ask this question in a philosophy class, but the Jew is truly bothered by it, bothered in his gut. What is this all about? Not, "How do I make the most of this life?" Not, "What am I supposed to do?" But, "Why life? Why existence at all?"
And because we find it difficult to answer that question, we find a disproportionate number of Jews in the world who don't know what to do with themselves. It's not an exaggeration that although we are less than 2% of the general population in the US, at the same time we are over 40% of all the cults, of all the searching, of all the revolutions and upheavals and changes that take place in the world. This is because we are not content; we sense that something to do with the very condition of existence needs to be explained, and we are not finding an explanation. So we're ready to turn everything upside down and throw everything away and start all over again in order to find the justification for existence.
What we're talking about is the soul of a person, and the soul is G-d. When we refer to the Shechinah, the feminine part of G-d, the part of G-d that dwells on earth, the part of G-d that is within us, it means the collective Jewish soul. That's the part of G-d that dwells on earth, and that's why it has been said by non-Jewish theologians that Jews are the presence of G-d on earth. That's why those individuals in history who have excelled in a hatred of G-d were determined to wipe out the Jews, because the Jews are G-d's presence on earth. There are two different and distinct entities: the human being, and the Jew who is that part of G-d which He invests into creation. There's really no choice.
Full article here: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_c ... mitism.htm It's worth reading it all, to get an idea of how whacked out this whole 'Jewish' thing is.
Modern Judaism is not based on Old Testament religion, but on the doctrines of Kabbalah and Talmudic law, which they consider the completion of the Torah (the five books of Moses.)
That's why the NT mentions those who call themselves Jews but are not Jews. It would seem that if we believe in the Gospel, we have to assume there are people calling themselves Jews who do practice what was Judaism in Christs time.
Not saying there are no 'Jews' practicing what we would think of as Old Testament religion, but probably not many, and probably none that have any real impact on the world.
