On Jewishness

Families that hid their identity, or didn't know via adoptions or arrangements, or converted for advantageous purposes... how long until they feel safe to come out, if ever? On the other side of the coin, you have males who aren't really Jewish converting to claim an identity their fathers perhaps invested in them, but the tribe itself finds suspicious without the conversion to overcome the blood exclusions.

I just wonder, do they know when we know? If you're Jewish, do you have to "come out"? Even if you were raised in a different tradition and have no particular pride one way or the other, advantageous or not?

I know my answer.  It is what it is.  Why deny it, or artificially embrace it if it doesn't feel natural?  But stop hiding if you're not really embracing other religious traditions and think putting them on is like dying your hair dark, studding yourself with nose and eyebrow rings, and purposely trying to present yourself as what you are not.

We are what we are. You don't have to live the traditions, but why deny?