I know this has probably been done many times over, but I’m unaware and technically unversed, so I’ll ask it anyway.
The basic rule of Judaism (as I understand it) is that if you are borne of a Jewish mother, you are considered a Jew.
I remember a Jewish friend of mine got married to a Catholic girl a while back. Needless to say, this created a lot of acrimony amongst his extended family.
Now a HUGE part of what was biting his mother was that their children, according to Jewish Law, would not be considered Jews. This goes back to the BOAJM rule above.
Now at such a time of heightened tension (even now) I failed to ask a simple question. What if my friend had been a girl? Would the grandmother have been nearly so upset, since as an extension of the above theory, her grandchildren would be considered Jews? Or would they be considered Jewish at all?
If a Jewish girl gets married/and/or has children with a goyim, are the children considered Jewish?
What is the official position on this? And around what time did this rule come into effect, and more specifically, why?
All I can think is that in ancient times, it would have been easier to acknowledge a mother than a father - since paternity could never truly be determined. But it seems a wierd choice in a strictly religious sense. You don’t expect the faithful to be bumping and grinding with other men.
Yes, but the children would have to self-identify as Jewish for that to be at all meaningful. That’s less likely with one Jewish and one non-Jewish parent than it is with two Jewish parents.
Not one of The Chosen myself, but I’ve heard the logic of it explained thusly: The wife/mother sets the tone for the home, where the most important parts of a child’s education occur. She prepares the food, for example. A shiksa such as myself could not be trusted to follow all of the details of a Kosher home, for example. Or to know about the proper actions for Jewish holidays. She’s likely to spend more hours with the children, providing a proper example.
I’ve heard this… I’ve also heard things implying it was pretty much accepted that if a catholic girl, for instance, married a jewish boy and formally converted to the jewish faith, going through whatever the appropriate ceremonies and studies are, that the kids would be considered ‘born jewish’ after that. Is that pretty much accurate?
Based on what I have read on this board and elsewhere, yes they would. A jewish convert is just as jewish as anyone else so the kids would simply have two jewish parents without qualification.
You wouldn’t even have to marry her. If the mother is Jewish, the kids are considered Jewish. The reason is logical. Until very recently, there was no way to know for certain who the father was but you could know with certainty who the mother was.
Are you asking out of concern for some deep spiritual meaning?, or, are you trying to appease family?, or, are you trying to brown nose the Rabbi?
Jew or Gentile, the Lord only calls all men to repent. Everything else is fluff. If you love the person, marry them. Besides, you will not be the first person to have a nag for a mother-in-law. (The Jewish mother is usually the one who brings up such trivia, sometimes the father)
Just chiming in to say, yeah it’s true. My half-Jewish boyfriend couldn’t have a bar mitzvah because he had a non-Jewish mother. He would have been able to if he had converted, but he didn’t feel strongly enough about the faith for that.
I’m the child of just such a union. Mom’s a jew, dad’s pretty much apathetic (but raised one of the popular southern religions like methodist or something).
Well, it depends on how they converted and who’s passing judgement on the validity of the conversion.
A friend of mine - not born Jewish - married a Jewish gentleman. She converted to Judaism according to the rules of Reform Judaism (which was perfectly acceptable to her husband and his family). When their son was born, they had a traditional bris*. The mohel** filled out the document stating that everything was kosher, but felt compelled to append the comment*** “Mother is not Jewish.”
Feh.
Ritual of circumcision of the infant
** Performer of ritual circumcision
***In Hebrew, apparently assuming that she couldn’t read it and that her Israeli-raised husband wouldn’t tell her.
My understanding is that Orthodox Jews do not recognise a Reform conversion - on the basis that Reform Judaism is so unorthodox as to be untenable…
An atheist, jewish friend of mine was appointed as principal/headmaster of an Orthodox Jewish school - shortly afterward, he was summoned to a meeting of the “board of trustees” (or whatever they were called). A rumour had come to their attention that he had been attending a Reform synagogue and they wanted him to deny or confirm - his comment was “You will not find me in any synagogue”, which they accepted. Apparently, to their way of thinking, an atheist Jew is better than a Reform Jew - I suppose an atheist would have no opinion on the “correct” approach to judaism, whereas a Reform Jew might try and introduce some of his non-orthodox beliefs.
Even Reform doesn’t consider me a Jew since my dad was Jewish. They might, if I’d been raised Jewish, but I wasn’t, so I’m not.
And yes, Orthodox Judaism doesn’t recognize Reform conversions. I don’t know what Conservatives do. I was warned about this when considering converting to Reform. I didn’t do it for unrelated reasons, but nobody thinks I’m a Jew. Since I don’t either (religiously, anyway), that’s fine by me.
I’m an athiest, so the Lord’s calling is lost on me.
I’m just asking out of curiosity.
So the basic consensus I’m getting is that if you’re orthodox, you’ll be considered Jewish so long as your mother was Jewish, period. Doesn’t even matter whether your father was married to her or not.
Okay I need a clarification on reform Judaism. Let us assume that the mother is Jewish. The father is not. But he is married to her. However he has not converted. Are the kids still considered Jewish?
Orthodox Jews will consider someone Jewish if they meet one of the following two criteria:
(1) They have a Jewish mother
(2) They converted in a halachiclly valid conversion.
Reform Jews will consider someone Jewish under the following circumstances
(1) Someone has one Jewish parent (either one’s mother or father) AND the child is brought up with a Jewish education and reinforcement of his/her Jewish identity
(2) Conversion under Orthodox, Conservative or Reform authorities.
Orthodox Jews would consider the child in your example 100% Jewish. So would Conservative Jews. Reform Jews would consider him/her Jewish only if they were raised as Jews with positive, identifiable steps taken to reinforce that.