Patrilineal Descent
According to traditional Jewish law, someone is a Jew if he or she is born
to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism.
Therefore, a child who is born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother
is not Jewish even if raised with a Jewish identity. Prior to the 1960s,
when intermarriage in the United States was relatively uncommon, this
law had few practical consequences. Today, however, more than one third
of Jews intermarry and, more often than not, it is Jewish men who marry
non-Jewish women. As a result, there are an estimated 220,000 children
in the United States born to nonJewish women who are married to
Jewish men.
In March 1983,
the Reform movement broke with the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish sects -
and with Jewish law - and declared that a child born of one Jewish parent,
whether it is the mother or the father, is under the presumption
of being Jewish. This patrilineal descent resolution went on to state that a person's Jewishness is not, however, automatic, but must be activated by "appropriate
and timely" Jewish acts. It is not enough to simply be born to
a Jewish parent. The Reform movement also notes that in the Bible the
line always followed the father, including the cases of Joseph and Moses, who married into non-Israelite
priestly families.
The Reform decision to regard a child as Jewish on
the basis of patrilineal as well as matrilineal descent has prompted
a bitter controversy. In the future, traditional Jews who wish to marry
a Reform Jew will have to examine their prospective spouse's background
to ensure that he or she is Jewish according to Jewish law. In truth,
however, the Reform movement's change is not nearly as great as it first
seemed. Had the Reform rabbis maintained the traditional definition
of a Jew, and insisted on converting children of non-Jewish women married
to Jewish men, Orthodox Jews would still have considered the conversions
invalid, since they reject the validity of Reform. (It should also be
noted, however, that in the case of a child born to a Jewish father
but to a non-Jewish mother, most Orthodox rabbis will relax the stringent
demands normally made of would-be converts.)
Within the Reform movement, a significant number of
rabbis opposed the ruling, and a few have agitated to have the decision
rescinded. That might occur only if the Orthodox rabbinate agrees to
accept the validity of Reform conversions. Since no such agreement seems
to be forthcoming, the Reform decision — apparently passed in large measure
to accommodate and reassure the tens of thousands of intermarried couples
who belong to Reform synagogues — will undoubtedly remain in force.
Within the Conservative movement, a minority attempt to define
Jewishness on the basis of paternity as well as maternity has
been soundly defeated.
Sources: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish
Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission
of the author. Also Union of Americah Hebrew
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