Like Toby Moses I too have a family name that allows people to come to their various own wrong conclusions (Why I’ll never again insist: I’m not Jewish, 28 December).
His “undenial” plan is so culturally Jewish. Double negatives in the title, browbeating himself for his imagined wrongs to others – he should just get on and be Jewish, whatever that means.
Time to write less, to worry less and just do some useful good, for which there are infinite opportunities all around us, herds of elephants in every room.
Duncan Michael
Leeds
• I come from a similar background to Toby Moses: my parents were not practising Jews, but my father was Jewish by birth. However, my surname isn’t obviously Jewish, nor is my appearance, so people never thought I was Jewish, which allowed me to hear many antisemitic comments and jokes from leftwing and Arabic friends at university in the early 1990s. I should have outed these people then for their racism, and told them I was Jewish, but I didn’t; it took me another couple of years to come out as half Jewish and start to call people out for their racism.
Tristan Moss
York
• Toby Moses, who has Jewish grandparents, says he’s not Jewish. A person with black grandparents is considered black. How is that different? Can a black Englishman similarly disavow his black antecedents?
Phillip Khan-Panni
Co-founder of the Professional Speaking Association
• At least Sigmund Freud, like Albert Einstein, but unlike Karl Marx, never objected to being called Jewish. As Jean-Paul Sartre, a non-Jew, famously said after the war: “Je suis un Juif”.
Ya’ir Klein
London
• As Toby Moses’ mother wasn’t Jewish, to an Orthodox Jew he’s gentile. I’m an ex-Catholic atheist of Irish descent but my children and grandchildren, according to Jewish law, are 100% Jewish. Perhaps I could describe myself as an honorary Jew.
John Trayner
London
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