This week, on the “(Is It) Good for the Jews?” podcast …

Larry Rosen: I’ve got some Jewish news for you, but it’s kind of negative. Not the happy-go-lucky sort we’re used to.

Eric Goldbrener: Let me think this over. I’m not sure I want to start my year with something negative.

LR: …

EG: OK, fine.

LR: You remember our friends at the Daily Stormer, don’t you?

EG: I wouldn’t exactly call them our “friends,” but I am familiar with the website, yes.

LR: The Daily Stormer, for those not familiar with it, is a website basically dedicated to hating Jews. Is that too broad?

EG: No, I think that’s pretty accurate. Go on.

LR: Well, the Daily Stormer is run by two guys — two Andys, if you will. There’s Andrew Anglin, who we’ve discussed before. He does the editorial side. This other guy, Andrew “Weev”? … is it “Weev”? This guy’s nickname is “Weev”? Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer; he does the tech side. Fond of going on other people’s podcasts and suggesting, hey, maybe we should kill Jews. Not all the Jews, mind you, just the “most Jewish” Jews.

EG: Right.

LR: Turns out: Jewish.

EG: Makes you wonder.

LR: Wouldn’t be the first self-hating Jew to ever live.

EG: Eh, he’s only in it for the money.

LR: You think?

EG: Look. What kind of Jew could he be? Honest to God. He’s the Jew where the white nationalist says, “Some of my best friends are Jewish.”

LR: He’s the Jew who probably didn’t know he was a Jew for a long time.

EG: How do you not know you’re Jewish?

LR: Actually, there’s a podcaster named Alison Rosen, who could marry my son and keep her name, grew up in Southern California, Orange County, who says she didn’t know she was Jewish until she was 18.

EG: Well, I hate to tell you. I’m not here to judge, but you’re not Jewish.

LR: Not Jewish?

EG: Being Jewish isn’t like being HIV positive. You don’t inherit it through blood. We’re not a race.

LR: It’s an ethnicity.

EG: It’s an identity. You’re part of a culture. You don’t end up there by accident.

LR: But when it comes time to be a Nazi, a white supremacist, someone dedicated to hating Jews, if you find that you have Jewish ancestors, that’s a credibility problem. You take your DNA test, what are those? All of these people taking these DNA tests?

EG: The 23andMe? Those things?

LR: I want to take the 23andMe DNA test but I’m afraid they’ll also tell me what I’m going to die of.

EG: Well, here’s the bad news: you’re Jewish, so you’ll probably die because someone’s going to kill you.

LR: … If you don’t die of angst first. But people take these tests and come back and say, “I’m 8 percent Jewish!”

EG: Eight percent? Where do they get that? “I was 8 percent Jewish but they cut off 3 percent when I got circumcised. Now I’m only 5 percent.”

LR: That means you’re from Eastern Europe, I’m guessing. But if this guy, Weev, takes his DNA test, I don’t think not being raised Jewish gets him off the hook in the world of like-minded, Jew-hating people. I’m saying his pals don’t have the same standards as you do for what makes someone a Jew.

EG: You know, what you’re talking about boils down to race, and I think the general concept of race is an oversimplification. The idea that there are four or five prototypes of human beings, that’s just not true. Certain personality traits? They may be inherited, but they don’t have to do with your race.

LR: So as far as this guy’s mom saying he has Jews in his background, and him saying “Doesn’t matter, I’m not Jewish” — that’s valid?

EG: Yep.

LR: What about the people who really want to be Jewish but aren’t? You let them in?

EG: If we’re talking about identity, you can’t inherit that identity. You identify yourself, and too often people foist an identity on them.

LR: And this guy’s mom is foisting an identity on him.

EG: Yeah, well, that guy’s bad for the Jews either way.