This Jewish guy said that he used to sell stuff cheaply to a Yishmaelite crime family who lived in an area controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
The Jewish guy quickly discovered that the Muslim-Arab head of the family was married to an Jewish-Israeli woman.
They had several children (all Jews, of course, but who looked, talked, and thought of themselves as Muslim Arabs) and who were married to Muslim Arabs.
Unusually, the Arab head of home treated his Jewish wife very well and she was happy in the situation. Her children, both the sons & daughters, also seemed content with their Arab lifestyle & identity.
The Jewish guy said he used to hang out with them until late at night. He said it was just like hanging out with his Jewish Israeli friends. He said he sat in their living room, looking around at the room full of "Arabs" and thinking, "Whoa, almost everyone here is Jewish!"
My son told him he should've told the grown children that they are Jews.
"Yeah, I know that now," said the Jewish guy.
"You can still tell them," said my son.
"No, I can't," he said.
Why?
One day, the Palestinian Authority descended upon the home with 30 officers and there was all kinds of chaos & fighting, maybe shooting, not sure exactly what. The Jewish guy dashed back into their home & hid there until everyone was gone, then he made his way out and back to the Israeli side.
He never went back.
It's heartbreaking to think of all the children of all the married daughters of the Jewish woman & Muslim man. So many Jews! Yet not a clue to their real identity.
But again, this comes on the heels of Who is a Jew? Disturbing Stories & Inspiring Stories. And How to Prevent Problematic Lineage from Affecting You & Your Descendants?
This also reminds me of an article in Hamodia, which featured a Romanian worker here in Eretz Yisrael who is 100% Jewish.
Yet he came here with all the non-Jewish Romanian workers and no one guesses that he is really Jewish.
On the other hand, there are so many people declaring they're Jewish & even celebrating Jewish holidays, but are not Jewish at all.
I heard that people who work in kiruv at college campuses now say that they've come to realize that the Jewish-looking student named Michael Goldberg or Abigail Schwartz is probably not Jewish at all, but only the child of intermarriage. (Their last name & their look is from their father while their Biblical first name happens to be in fashion this millennium.)
It's getting so that you don't even know who to approach anymore.
We really need Mashiach to come & sort us all out.