I was adopted when I was about three months old. My adoptive mother is Lutheran, and adoptive father is Jewish (Conservative). My understanding growing up is that I’d have to undergo a lengthy conversion process if I wanted to be Jewish. I was raised Lutheran, and now attend a Unitarian Universalist church. (My personal spiritual beliefs can be best described as “Christian light, with 99.9% less dogma.”)
My birth mother and I discovered each other about two weeks ago. (We’re still going through the “getting to know each other” process, and we’ll eventually have a reunion.) She’s Jewish. Does that mean I’m “officially Jewish” in the eyes of whatever temple I might step into? What’s the status of my Judiasm, if any?
By the definitions of Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, you are Jewish.
By the definition of Reform Judaism you are Jewish, you are Jewish if one of the two conditions are met:
(a) Both your birth parents were Jewish
(b) One birth parent was Jewish and you were raised Jewish, given a Jewish education, etc.
May I ask about adopted infants (probably not the best idea at 4:30 on Friday)? If the adopted mother and/or father is Jewish, is the baby considered Jewish or do the parents need to do something to convert the baby or ?
I had heard that this is the prevailing view, but that in some places the tradition is that your father must be Jewish, and your mother’s status is incidental. This was told to me by a Jew born in the Soviet Union (sorry, don’t recall where).
Am I completely misremembering this, or is there some truth in there?
<< If the adopted mother and/or father is Jewish, is the baby considered Jewish or do the parents need to do something to convert the baby or ? >>
The parents (Orthodox or Conservative, anyway) usually have the baby undergo a brief conversion ceremony. Requires circumcision (for a boy) and immersion in a mikveh (the origin of the baptism rituals) and a few odds and ends.
<<I had heard that this is the prevailing view, but that in some places the tradition is that your father must be Jewish, and your mother’s status is incidental. This was told to me by a Jew born in the Soviet Union (sorry, don’t recall where). >>
I’m not aware of any such view. There are some subgroups of Judaism (such as Reform) that give the father equal status with the mother in determining the Jewishness of the baby, but I’ve never heard of one that gives the father predominant status.
You may be thinking of the “tribal affiliation” of a Jewish baby, as a Levite or a Priest (kohan, descendent of Aaron), which derives from the birth father, not the mother.
May I ask a question? If my mother were to convert to Judaism (a real though small possibility) would this go any distance toward making me a Jew? I have wanted to ask this question before in its own thread, but this thread is here, and…
(by the way, I suspect the answer is an unequivocal “no”.)
BTW, when Jewish parents adopt a non-Jewish baby, the baby undergoes the conversion stuff mentioned by Dex above, but the child is sort of provisionally converted - once he/she reaches bar or bas mitzvah, they can decide for themselves whether or not they want to be Jewish. If they continue to live as Jews, they’ve accepted it fully and are as Jewish zev, me, or elmwood. If they don’t want to accept, they have to publically violate a commandment.
dqa - That is not correct. While Reform Jews will accept as Jewish a person whose father is Jewish regardless of the status of the mother, no one will deny the Jewishness of someone whose mother is Jewish.
masonite - As GilaB said, your mother’s conversion would have no effect on your status. On the other hand, it is entirely possible that if you like the way she now lives life being a Jew, it might make you more apt to convert yourself, but without an actual conversion ceremony for you, you would not be Jewish.
i don’t understand, from the op neither of these were met. elmwood never said anything about the birth father being jewish, and definitely said that he (?) was not raised jewish.
