I didn’t really consider myself Jewish. Raised by an atheist father and an agnostic mother, I grew up in a secular household. I had absolutely no religious background or education.
-- Karl (Part I: How I Became Jewish paragraph 24)

Importance: Although Karl has Jewish blood in his background, he doesn’t consider himself Jewish as he and his family aren’t practicing Jews. Karl’s lack of affiliation with the Jews and Jewish religion makes it even harder for him to understand and swallow the prejudicial behavior with which his fellow students and eventually Germans in general show against him and his family.

Whatever the reason, no matter how much the rest of me looked and felt like a gentile, I had a penis that was undeniably Jewish.
-- Karl (Part 1: How I Became Jewish paragraph 35)

Importance: The boys at Karl’s school, known as the Wolf Pack, pull down Karl’s pants, exposing his circumcised penis, as proof that he is Jewish.

There’s adventure in the...
-- Karl and Hildy (Part 1: Winzig and Spatz paragraph 57)