WHO IS A JEW?

The subject of "who is a Jew?" is very complex. This essay only summarizes some basic understandings. We welcome additional information and corrections. This essay will be updated from time to time, as we learn more.

THE HEBREW BIBLE ON THE QUESTION

Intermarriage is described in two completely conflicting ways in the Tanach (Hebrew Bible, Old Testament). On the one hand, some stories and commandments explicitly forbid intermarriage (Deuteronomy 7:3-5), and these attitudes result in the exile or death of children of intermarriage.  Example of this approach are contained in Leviticus 24:10-23, Ezra 9:1-3 and Ezra 10:1-44.

Other stories in the Tanach suggest that intermarriage is OK, and that the children and grandchildren of intermarriage are good for Judaism. Two examples of this approach are the book of Ruth and the book of Esther.

Many of the stories in the Tanach appear to suggest that a person in Biblical Israel was considered to be a Jew if that person had a Jewish mother or a Jewish father, and was raised as a Jew. There are many examples of children of interfaith couples in the Bible being treated as Jews.

On the other hand, some hereditary honors, such as rank as a Cohen or a Levite, passed to offspring only through a Jewish father, leading some historians to believe that the Biblical Jews actually followed only patrilineal descent.

The Hebrew Bible, therefore, reflects several different views of intermarriage and the Jewish status of children and other descendants of intermarriage.

THE TALMUDIC ERA MATRILINEAL RULE

At some point in the Talmudic era, the Jewish rabbinic elite apparently changed the Jewish descent rules to a matrilineal rule -- only the child of a Jewish mother, or the grandchild of a maternal Jewish grandmother, etc., would be considered to be a "real" Jew.

Various speculative reasons are given by Jews today as to why this change was made, including erroneous Jewish folklore claims that: (1)  it was done to protect Jewish women raped by non-Jews or (2) that the change was made because the identity of the child's mother was usually known in pre-scientific eras, but the true biological father's identity could be concealed. However, there does not appear to be any scholarly support for these folk myths.

There are many speculations on why the Talmudic rabbis adopted matrilineal descent, but none of them appear conclusive.  The Talmudic rabbis apparently imposed an interpretation on Deuteronomy 7:3-5 that reinterprets the plain sense of the passage -- a direct ban on all intermarriages -- to work in a recognition of matrilineal descent that does not appear in the original language. It is not known why they did this.

MATRILINEAL RULE OFTEN IGNORED

A close reading of Jewish history shows that matrilineal descent was never accepted and practiced 100% -- for example, the ancient Jewish communities of Kaifeng, China and Ethiopia are thought to have begun when male Jewish traders settled in those countries, married local women, and began raising families.

Jewish communities frequently ignored the matrilineal descent rule when it was convenient.  Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, was married to Julie Naschauer, who was apparently the patrilineal grandaughter of an intermarriage. Though raised as a Jew, she was probably not Jewish according to the matrilineal descent rule, making her three children by Herzl patrilineal great-grandchildren of intermarriage, and non-Jews in the eyes of the Israeli state that he helped found.

Many 20th century pre-Holocaust Jewish communities in western Europe and America often seem to have openly or covertly ignored the matrilineal rule and  treated some Jewish-identified offspring of intermarriage as Jews, or as partly-Jewish Christians, irregardless of whether they had a Jewish mother or a Jewish father.

CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN OF INTERMARRIAGE IN THE HOLOCAUST

During the Holocaust, the Nazis appear to have focused on destorying people with two Jewish parents first. Children and grandchildren of intermarriage were subjected to a complex set of rules, under which some of them were treated as "real" Germans, and others were condemned, and sometimes executed, as Jews. 

The Nazi regime was gradually tightening the noose on descendants of intermarriage during WWII, and it is likely that had WWII lasted longer, many Jewish spouses of interfaith couples and their children and grandchildren would have been killed, sterilized and/or subjected to additional punitive legal measures. See "Holocaust."

CURRENT "WHO IS A JEW" VIEWPOINTS

After WWII, the intermarriage rates worldwide began climbing dramatically.  Jewish communities worldwide had many diverse responses to the growing number of half-Jewish people. Some communities shunned us as the "fruit of a sin," some communities began welcoming us wholeheartedly, and others, like Israel, remain profoundly ambivalent towards us (see "Israel").

At the present time, the our situation in the Jewish community is very complex. We are considered "Jewish" by some communities and not others, depending on a growing and conflicting body of rules that vary from one denomination and country to the next.  The situation is very fluid, and we welcome new information or corrections to the information given below:

1. Orthodox Judaism -- does not consider us Jewish unless we have a biological Jewish mother, maternal Jewish grandmother, or maternal Jewish great-grandmother (mother's mother's mother, etc.) The child of a woman converted to Judaism by Orthodox ritual before the child's birth is considered to be a Jew.

 It does not matter if the matrilineal descendant of intermarriage was raised as a non-Jewish secular or in another faith-based culture. Only that person's bloodline counts.

All patrilineal adult children and other descendants of intermarriage must convert by Orthodox ritual, even if they were raised as Jews. The Orthodox do not recognize conversions performed by non-Orthodox Jewish groups.

In  addition, some ultra-Orthodox groups have begun disputing the legitimacy of conversions performed by other Orthodox groups as insufficient.  In Israel, the U.S., and the U.K., some interfaith families find that the non-Jewish female spouse's Orthodox conversion has been abruptly invalidated by Orthodox beth dins (judgment courts), years after the fact, leaving a converted female spouse and the children of both genders suddenly "not Jewish" years after the non-Jewish female spouse was converted by Orthodox ritual.

However, one wing of the Orthodox is uncomfortable with current Orthodox attitudes towards interfaith families, and has been trying to set up organizations and conferences to do outreach to interfaith couples and adult children of intermarriage. They represent a new and hopeful trend within Orthodoxy. There are also Orthodox synagogues, including some Chabad Lubavitch shuls, that treat interfaith couples and adult children of intermarriage interested in living as Orthodox Jews with courtesy and warmth.

2. Israel -- has a confusing dual policy. Under the Law of Return, all children and grandchildren of intermarriage, whether patrilineal or matrilineal, are welcome to become Israeli citizens. All children and grandchildren of intermarriage can be serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), pay taxes, and vote.

But only matrilineal Jews receive the designation "Jew" on their national identity cards. Patrilineal Jews are not considered Jewish. This means that matrilineal Israeli Jews can marry other Jews in Israel, and be married and buried in Orthodox ceremonies there.

 Orthodox Judaism is the only form of Judaism legally recognized in Israel. Reform, Conservative, and other Jewish movements have synagogues and havurot in Israel, but their life cylce ceremonies (conversions, marriages, baby namings, etc.) have no legal effect under Israeli law.

It is our understanding that patrilineal Israeli Jews must go abroad to get married legally, are buried "beyond the wall" of Jewish graveyards, and are not designated "Jew" on their identity cards, unless they undergo an Orthodox conversion.

Israel's Reform and Conservative movements still adhere, like the Orthodox, to the matrilineal rule and require patrilineals to convert. However, Israel's Reform and Conservative movements would like Israeli law to change, so that the Israeli Reform and Conservative movement's conversions of patrilineals would be recognized in Israel.

To complicate matters still further, Israel does legally recognize Reform and Conservative conversions of patrilineals that are done in other countries, before the patrilineal Jews leave for Israel.  So a patrilineal Jew can be converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis in another country, immigrate to Israel, and become a fully Jewish Israeli citizen.

But a patrilineal Jew who seeks out a Reform or Conservative conversion inside Israel itself is not considered fully Jewish under Israeli law.

A patrilineal Jew resident in Israel who leaves the country to obtain a Reform or Conservative conversion in another country, and then quickly returns to Israel, is likely to find the conversion legally questioned.

Some secular Israelis favor accepting patrilineal Jews as Jewish, partially because thousands of Russian-Israelis and other Jews from the countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) are patrilineal children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

Israel's official, state-sponsored conversion process -- only Orthodox conversions are recognized for legal purposes -- is currently on the verge of collapse, partially due to the insistence of ultra-Orthodox rabbis that all interfaith couples, patrilineal children of intermarriage and other patrilineal descendants of intermarriage must pledge to become Orthodox Jews after conversion.

This attitude has hit the Russian-Israeli community and the rest of the FSU Israelis especially hard, as thousands of FSU Israelis are either intermarried Jews or adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

Many of the Israeli interfaith couples, patrilineal adult children of intermarriage and patrilineal grandchildren of intermarriage resist the pressure to become Orthodox. Others are willing to become Orthodox Jews, and interested in practicing Orthodoxy,  but find that the rabbinic courts are so exacting in their demands, and delay their conversions for so long,  that members of interfaith families give up on the conversion process.

Other FSU non-Jewish spouses and adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage in Israel consider themselves to already be Jews because they were persecuted as "Jews" in the FSU and are now citizens of Israel.

Some FSU Israeli Jews and half-Jewish people are secular Jews, and do not want to undergo a religious conversion to what is for them a solid secular Jewish identity.

Still other FSU members of interfaith families in Israel identify as Christians -- some accounts indicate that some of the Christian-identified FSU Israelis have given up on Judaism, which they perceive as unwelcoming. Others apparently arrived as Christians in Israel.

Sporadic attempts are made in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) to cut grandchildren of intermarriage out of the Law of Return, so that if they come to Israel, they will not automatically be entitled to full Israeli citizenship.  Some accounts indicate that these attempts to remove the grandchildren of intermarriage from the Law of Return are due to the disappointment of some Israelis with FSU Jews whose grandchildren are not strongly Jewish- identified. 

A number of Israelis believe that the intermarried FSU Jewish families only made aliyah (immigration to Israel) for economic benefits greater than those they would have in the FSU countries, and not to live as Jews.

There are indications that some of the FSU grandchildren of intermarriage feel alienated by an Israeli society where many people openly regard them as "non-Jews."

Adult children of Israeli Jews intermarried to Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians also have a very difficult time in Israel.  Their interfaith families endure even greater problems than those of Israeli Jews intermarried to Christians of European descent. For more information about the adult children of Israeli Jews intermarried to Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians, see "Israel." 

Interestingly, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) has been very supportive of adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage in its ranks, and has tried to provide rapid conversion classes and helpful Orthodox rabbis for this purpose.  The IDF has come under heavy attack from some ultra-Orthodox rabbis for doing conversions that these ultra-Orthodox rabbis view as not strict enough.  

We are also aware of some adult children of Jewish-Palestinian Arab intermarriages who identify as Palestinian and are said to have taken up arms and/or provided political support for the Palestinian cause. See "Israel" for more information.

The situation in Israel on "who is a Jew" is very fluid and complicated, shifting from month to month, and we supply updates about it in our email newsletter. For more information on the context, see "Israel."

3. Conservative Judaism -- in the United States, Israel, and Europe, the Conservative movement recognizes only matrilineal Jews as  Jews. The biological child of a woman who converts to Judaism before the child's birth is also considered to be a Jew.

Patrilineal Jews must convert via Conservative, Orthodox or Reform ritual to be considered Jews.  The Conservative movement also bans patrilineals from Camp Ramah, disaffiliated from a joint Reform/Conservative synagogue that called patrilineals to read the Torah in synagogue, and banned the presence of intermarried Jews as teachers and synagogue leaders in Conservative institutions.

One wing of the Conservative movement wants to change Conservative policies towards interfaith families. It has been proposed that patrilineal children be allowed to attend Conservative day schools, though they would be required to convert to Judaism at bar/bat mitzvah (confirmation), age 13.  One Conservative synagogue has instituted an outreach program for adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

A recent worldwide poll of Conservative rabbis -- U.S., Canada, Israel, etc. -- indicated that a majority of Conservative rabbis still insists on the matrilineal rule. They appear to be at odds with a minority of Conservative rabbis and a majority of the Conservative lay people, who have indicated that they would be willing to accept patrilineals without conversion.  This is a very hopeful trend for adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

4. Reconstructionist Judaism and Reform Judaism --  In 1968 Reconstructionist Judaism, followed in 1983 by American Reform Judaism, officially abandoned the matrilineal descent rule.

Both groups adopted a new, bilineal descent rule, declaring that the child of either a Jewish father or a Jewish mother was to be considered a Jew, if: (1) the child was raised as a Jew; and/or (2) engages in an appropriate act of self-identification as a Jew.

There is a Jewish urban myth that Reconstruction's and Reform's new rule meant that all adult children of intermarriage would be accepted by them, irregardless of how they are raised. This is not true.

Matrilineal Jews raised in other faiths, who are routinely accepted as Jews by Israel, the Orthodox and the Conservatives -- if the matrilineals opt to leave the other faiths and live as Jews -- are considered non-Jews by Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism and must convert to Judaism, even if they have left other faiths and now practice only Judaism.

Patrilineal Jews raised in other faiths are also considered non-Jews by Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism and must convert to Judaism, even if they have left other faiths and now practice only Judaism.

Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism have been very hospitable to interfaith families, and these families are mostly very well-treated.

Ironically, we have heard from some Reform patrilineals that they are not advised by their kindly and welcoming home congregations that they are not considered Jewish by some other groups of Jews -- apparently due to a reluctance to hurt their feelings --  and these Reform patrilineals then feel profoundly hurt when they encounter Orthodox, Conservative, Israeli and some secular Jews who will not accept them as Jewish.

We have not received any feedback about this topic from adult children of intermarriage affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement.

In addition, some Reform rabbis -- a minority -- did not concur in the abandonment of the matrilineal descent rule, and tend to be unsupportive of patrilineals. Some Reform rabbis also refuse to perform intermarriages.

In contrast,  we have heard rumors that another minority of Reform rabbis appear to be quietly accepting adult children of intermarriage raised as Christians into their congregations as Jews, if the adult children have decided to abandon Christianity. It is said that these rabbis are not requiring these adult children to officially convert to Judaism. We are not certain how accurate this rumor is.

Reform movements in other countries vary widely in their attitudes towards adult children of intermarriage. Some Reform-equivalent movements -- "Progressive" or "Liberal" Judaism -- accept patrilineal and matrilineal children of intermarriage. Other Reform movements outside of the U.S. still adhere to the matrilineal rule.

5. Humanistic Judaism -- The Society for Humanistic Judaism  appears to accept the children of either Jewish fathers and Jewish mothers as Jews if that is how they identify. We have received no complaints from adult children of intermarriage affiliated with the Humanistic Jewish movement.

6. Jewish Renewal -- The Jewish Renewal movement does not have an official position on the Jewish status of children of intermarriage. Decisions on Jewish status are left up to the individual rabbis. The Renewal community has a large number of interfaith families. We have received only one complaint about discrimination against patrilineals within a Jewish Renewal community.

7. Christianity -- Most Christian groups do not have a descent rule for determining a child's or other descendant's religious identity. A child is considered Christian if the child's parents decide to raise the child as a Christian, teach the child about Christianity, including regular church attendance, and arrange for the child to be baptized as an infant, a child or an adult.

The child's parents do not have to be Christians in order to raise the child as a Christian, though Christians generally encourage non-Christian parents to convert to Christianity as well.

Historically, Christianity began by advocating that Christians married to people who weren't Christian stay with their spouses and children and try to influence them to convert to Christianity (I Corinthians 7:12-16).

As the rivalry with Judaism grew sharper, and the Christians took over the Roman Empire and later dominated Europe, laws were passed forbidding Jews to marry Christians. In some cases, such couples were threatened with legal death penalties. The Jewish community was also extremely hostile to interfaith couples.

Where prejudices were not too pervasive, the children of interfaith couples might be raised as Christians, and in other geographic areas, they might be raised as Jews. 

Christians in 16th and 17th century Spain and Portugal persecuted large populations of Jews. Many Jews in those countries were intermarried, and living as Christians -- some had sincerely converted to Christianity, while others had done so to avoid persecution -- and these interfaith couples and their children were regarded with suspicion by their Christian neighbors as potentially planning to defect back to Judaism. They were sometimes denounced to the Inquisition.

From the 18th century to the Holocaust, the Jews of Europe and the United States intermarried in increasing numbers, as the climate of legal and political tolerance grew. The children were usually raised as Christians, because the Jewish community of that era seldom welcomed interfaith couples.

Christian groups in the United States have historically welcomed children and grandchildren of intermarriage into their membership. The first American Jewish communities were Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese descent) during the 17th and 18th centuries, and were greeted so warmly that they mostly disappeared via intermarriage.

The German Jews who reached America in the 19th century were mostly well-treated by the U.S. Christian majority, but subjected to some anti-Semitism, consisting of polite avoidance, and the relegation of Jews to a social niche between whites and African-Americans.

The East European Jews who arrived in American after 1880, found an America that was noticeably anti-Semitic, with quotas on the number of Jews allowed to attend certain universitites and other forms of social discrimination.

Since the 1930s, while some adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage have reported sporadic instances of anti-Semitism experienced by them in U.S. Christian groups, at the present time the vast majority of Christian groups in the U.S. are currently philo-Semitic (very pro-Jewish) and welcome inquiries from children and grandchildren of intermarriage. See "Christian Children of Intermarriage."

The climate of relative tolerance for interfaith families in Europe between 1750 and 1939 was temporarily halted by the Holocaust and the post-World War II Communist ascendancy in Eastern Europe.

8. The Nazis and the Holocaust (1933-1945)-- The Israeli Law of Return, allowing the children and grandchildren of intermarriage to become Israeli citizens, is said to be a response to the Nazi laws stigmatizing adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage. The Nazis had very elaborate rules for determining whether a child or grandchild of intermarriage would be considered "Jewish." See "Holocaust."

9. The Former Soviet Union (FSU) Countries -- During the Communist regime of the Soviet Union (1918-1990), children and grandchildren of intermarriage were usually considered part of the Jewish ethnic minority, and suffered discrimination and persecution as a result.

Ironically, when thousands of Russian and other FSU children and grandchildren of intermarriage arrived in Israel after the fall of the former Soviet Union, they were greeted with the news that under Israeli law, those who were patrilineal weren't considered to be real Jews, and would have to undergo full Orthodox conversions if they wished to be considered fully Jewish. See the information about Israel in Item No. 2 above, and also our "Israel" webpage.

10. Post-Holocaust Europe and America -- Today, as the Jewish communities of Europe slowly begin to regrow and rebuild,  there are hundreds of adult children and grandchildren in Europe. Some of them have begun exploring living as Jews.

Some Jewish communities in Europe have welcomed their new half-Jewish members, as they seek to rebuild communities decimated by the Holocaust.  These adult children of intermarriage, if treated in a kindly manner, have often joined European Jewish communities and begun living as Jews.

Other Jewish European communities are very hostile to adult children of intermarriage and demand documentary or pictoral proof that they have a Jewish parent or grandparent, preferably matrilineal, and impose rigorous, punitive conversion regimes on the patrilineal adult children of intermarriage.

Even matrilineal adult children of intermarriage are closely questioned as to whether they have any documentary or pictoral proof that their maternal ancestors were Jewish. If they have insufficient proof of maternal Jewish descent, they may be asked to convert to Judaism.

In certain instances, this harsh treatment drives adult children of intermarriage out of the European Jewish community.

11. Islam -- It is our current understanding that under the Islamic religious law, Sharia, a child is considered as belonging to the religion of the father.  We are told that Muslim men are allowed to intermarry, but not Muslim women, though there are instances where Muslim women have defied this rule to marry non-Muslim, including Jewish men.

Under Sharia, the child of a Muslim father and a Jewish mother is considered to be a Muslim. Ironically, Orthodox Jewish law views that same child as a Jew. 

Concurrently, the child of a Muslim woman and a Jewish man would be considered Jewish by the Muslims and Muslim by Orthodox Jewish law.

At the present time, the children of Jewish-Muslim intermarriages in the United States appears to consist mostly of babies and young children, but their numbers are growing.

There are adult children of Jewish Israelis intermarried to Palestinian Arab Muslims and Christians. Their lives have been made very difficult by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For information about the adult children of  Jewish Israelis intermarried to Palestian Arab Muslims and Christians, see "Israel" and "Muslim and Other Children of Intermarriage."

12. Science and History -- Scientific study of our DNA would disclose little difference between matrilineals and patrlineals. About 50% of our DNA comes from our Jewish parent; about 50% comes from our Christian parent.

From a scientific viewpoint, the matrilineal/patrilineal distinction makes no sense.

Modern DNA studies of Jewish populations appear to show that some Jewish populations adhered rigorously to matrilineal descent for centuries; other Jewish communities seem to have been founded via patrilineal descent (Jewish men marrying local, non-Jewish women) and then switched over to matrilineal descent.

Historical records indicate that still other Jewish communities may have accepted both patrilineal and matrilineal descent, or possibly even strictly patrilineal descent. Perhaps Jewish DNA studies will someday shed more light on these questions.

Jewish DNA studies are still in their infancy, but they have great potential for identifying the descendants of populations of "hidden" Jews, many of whom are descendants of intermarriage, who concealed their identities to evade persecution. The most famous population are the Marrano Jews of Spain and Portugal, who hid from the Inquisition behind false Christian identities in Spain and Portugal, and also in Spain's colonial empire, in what today is northern Mexico, and the U.S. southwestern border states.

13. The Half-Jewish Network -- welcomes all adult children, grandchildren, great-granchildren and other descendants of intermarried Jews, both patrilineal and matrilineal. We accept and support the self-definitions of our members.

CONCLUSION

The "who is a Jew" question within the Jewish world remains fluid, and it is unlikely that any one definition of Jewish identity will ever prevail.

Adult children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of intermarriage who are interested in living as Jews are advised to choose the Jewish group(s) with whom they feel most in harmony, and investigate their "who is a Jew" policies.

They should anticipate that no matter what type of affiliation, conversion, or membership they choose, some Jewish person, somewhere, may challenge their Jewishness.  In these situations, they should keep in mind the old Jewish proverb, "two Jews, three opinions."

They should also remember the words of deceased Conservative Jewish scholar Dr. Evelyn Garfiel, author of a classic introduction to the Jewish siddur (prayerbook), a wonderful book called "Service of the Heart," who noted in 1958 that G-d -- or as Humanistic Judaism would see it, Jewish culture -- seeks "Avodah Shebalayv," the service of the heart."

The Half-Jewish Network believes that while our partially-Jewish parentage is important to all of us, whether we identify as Jewish or as members of another faith-based culture,  the service of the heart is the most important component of our decisions about our identities and beliefs. We urge our group's members to listen to their hearts in determining what their identity(ies) are and where they belong.