@dbattistella one of my friends in Israel has parents from Poland and Bulgaria. Her father’s Polish family disowned him for marrying a Bulgarian woman, who would be considered Sephardi. What he’s describing is historical colorism and internal Orientalism within Jewish communities.German Jews patronized Eastern European Jews - - that’s where the term “Eastern Jew” came from - - while Eastern European Jewish communities had their own internal hierarchies. Some Sephardi Jews, in turn, have regarded themselves as the only “pure” Jews. Until relatively recently, Sephardi families could also be reluctant to let their children marry Eastern European Jews for similar reasons.The large number of Eastern European Jews gave them considerable influence uniquely when many immigrated to North America and Western Europe following the 19th century pogroms in the Russian empire, where they largely assimilated, and helped shape - - and, in some ways, redefine - - what it meant to be Jewish in the diaspora, including perceptions of what Jewish people look like.IMHO, it is also more plausible that someone from the Middle East has Jewish ancestry than that a random person from Poland or Russia is Jewish only because a distant ancestor happened to marry a Jewish person and convert - - typically the woman, if we’re taking “bloodlines” seriously. This guy doesn’t appear to have any obvious Jewish ancestry either, so the argument is ultimately futile. Jews ARE Middle Eastern people. The irony is glaring.