In interest of my discussion with Slimboyfat, I searched for help from a couple of friends. The following is an excerpt from an email sent by a Jewish teacher of religion, Carlos Campos, who having read the post and discussion and hearing my question, has allowed me to post the following:
"We Jews are technically-speaking an 'ethnoreligion,' or a tribe. We do not share one single line of DNA, and traditionally we have included non-Hebrews in the tribe since the time of Abraham. Today there are Semitic Jews, Asian Jews, African (Black) Jews, and Latino Jews. I myself am Sephardic.
It is not accurate to say that Jews who were victims of the Shoah were chosen solely on the basis of race. That was the Nazi argument, but science has since proven that their ideas regarding race were unscientific. Some anthropologists today feel that all discussion of 'race differences' are without scientific basis.
Jews cannot be totally separated from their religion, even if they are secular Jews. We are Jews because of a religion as well as being members of a tribe connected in one way another with the line of Abraham. They are inseparable elements of our identity. We are a people of a particular faith because we are defined by a religion, even if we claim to be non-religious.
...Lastly, in reference to the Bible Students who suffered along with us and others in the concentration camps, their choice was not based on solidarity with the Jews or even a disagreement with the Nazi state in particular but due to a hatred of all the world, all its governments, and due to a belief that all other religions are not of God. They neither saw us [Jews] as fellow servants of God then during the Shoah nor do they now.
To illustrate my point: A Witness fellow by the name of Larry Alford once told me, some twenty or so years ago, that the reason the Muslims now occupy the Temple Mount is a sign from God that we, the Jews, have been rejected by God. We rejected Jesus and killed him and thus as a whole we have been rejected as a people. The Islamic shrine is a way of God letting us Jews know that we are no longer God's covenant people. We are rejects. The Muslim dome is meant to be an insult from Heaven and constant reminder of this.
While those Bible Students who suffered in the Shoah were nevertheless courageous to take their stand, the pacifism may not be genuine. There seems to be an underlying hatred for non-Witnesses at the basis of it. It isn't even referred to as 'pacifism' by their own choice but instead as 'neutrality' to secular issues. The same religion teaches that God is destined to slaughter all non-Witnesses is the upcoming war of Armageddon. Looking forward to the slaughter of people in an upcoming war is not pacifism by any definition.
To insist that the Jews in the concentration camps were not a people of a faith is view of equal hatred, in my opinion. Were it not for the Jews, the Gentiles would not have their monotheistic religions they claim have superseded our own. Sadly I have grown old in a world that has still not halted Hitler's decision to define us by standards we did not invent."
