We must be unapologetically Jewish

by Michelle Lubin Terris, originally published on JNS.org on March 3, 2026.  Michelle Lubin Terris is the Founder and President of JEXIT.

There is a lie circulating today online, in protests and even in academic spaces that modern Jews aren’t the real Jews.

This lie isn’t new, and it isn’t harmless. Its purpose is simple: to erase Jewish identity and deny our connection to history, faith and our homeland.

Judaism is more than a religion. It is a people, a nation and a family.

You can convert to Judaism, but you don’t convert into a fictional ancestry. The Jewish people have never disappeared. We are the same people who stood at Mount Sinai, who were exiled by empires, who were persecuted across continents and targeted in every generation.

And yet, we are still here.

Today’s Jews come from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Ethiopia and beyond. We may look different and speak different languages, but we share the same calendar, the same prayers and the same direction of the heart. Wherever Jews lived, we prayed facing Jerusalem. We fasted on Yom Kippur. We mourned the destruction of the Temple. That is continuity.

One of the most common attempts to deny this continuity is the so-called Khazar theory, the claim that European Jews descend from a medieval kingdom unrelated to the Jewish people. There is no credible historical or genetic evidence to support this claim. Modern genetic studies consistently show that Jews—Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi—share common Middle Eastern ancestry. Even the priestly line, the Kohanim, reflects this continuity.

This lie persists because it serves an agenda. If Jews can be portrayed as impostors, then Jewish history can be dismissed. And if Jewish history can be dismissed, then the Jewish connection to Israel can be denied.

Israel is not a modern invention or a colonial project. It is woven into Jewish history, prayer and memory. Jewish kings ruled there. Jewish prophets walked there. Jewish ancestors are buried there. You may debate politics. You may disagree with policies. But history cannot be erased by disagreement.

Jewish Americans have also been part of building this country from the very beginning. The Jewish patriot Haym Salomon helped finance the Revolutionary War and gave America a chance to survive. Leaders like George Washington understood that Jews were not outsiders but contributors to the American experiment in liberty and equality. Washington even wrote that in America, Jews would live safely under their own vine and fig tree, a promise of security, dignity and equality. Jews defended the Constitution, fought for religious freedom, advanced education and charity, and upheld the belief that freedom carries responsibility. These contributions are part of Jewish history and American history alike.

Every generation of Jews faces the same question: Will we carry our identity forward, or let others define it for us? We answer that by learning our history, teaching our children, living our traditions proudly and correcting lies with the truth. When we embrace our Judaism, we do not withdraw from society. We strengthen it.

The answer to antisemitism has never been assimilation or silence. It has always been knowledge, courage and pride. We are not here by accident. We are not strangers to this country. We will not allow our story to be rewritten.

We were scattered but not destroyed. Persecuted but not erased. Exiled, but we returned. Modern science confirms what Jewish tradition has always said: Jews around the world trace back to ancient Israel, to Jerusalem, to the land at the center of our story.

We are Jews. We are Americans. By embracing both, by embracing who we are, we ensure that truth, freedom and faith continue to shine for generations to come.

And perhaps the real question isn’t who the Jewish people are, but why Jewish survival has always unsettled the world.