As a Conservative rabbi and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, I cannot officially consider Jewish descent to be determined patrilineally (from the father). In fact, in its "Code of Professional Conduct," the section detailing the responsibilities for membership in the Rabbinical Assembly lists four current standards of religious practice. The first is: "Matrilineality determines Jewish status."
And yet, like many Jews who regard Jewish status to require a Jewish mother or proper conversion, I admit to feeling pride when a Jewish athlete or celebrity is successful, even if their "Jewishness" isn't technically defined by halachic standards. After all, when Major League Baseball player Ryan Braun won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2007, should the Jewish community have refused to claim the "Hebrew Hammer" as one of our own since only his father is a "Member of the Tribe?" Braun considers himself to be Jewish and his Israeli-born father lost most of his family in the Holocaust.
The 1983 decision by the Reform Movement to recognize Jewish status by either the mother or the father continues to raise questions for the other streams of Judaism. The debate over "Who is a Jew" is back in the headlines following the shooting in Tucson, Arizona that critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. For Giffords, the daughter of a mother who is a Christian Scientist and a father who is Jewish and the grandson of a rabbi, there is no question of her Jewishness. She is a proud Jew who is an active member of her Reform congregation. She was married under a chuppah (wedding canopy) by a rabbi, albeit to a non-Jewish man.
This week, as Giffords lay in a hospital recovering from being shot in an assassination attempt by a domestic terrorist, her Hebrew name has circulated the world to be used in the traditional Mi Sheberach prayer for healing. Some rabbis have even questioned whether her non-Jewish mother's name should be part of her Hebrew nomenclature for the prayer, while others have referred to her as Jewish but added the caveat "not halachically speaking." Giffords co-chaired the Jewish Outreach Institute's 2007 conference and is active in her congregation. Yesterday, President Barack Obama called Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, Giffords' rabbi at Congregation Chaverim, to offer his prayers for a speedy recovery for the congresswoman.
Since Saturday's shooting, we've learned quite a bit about Gabrielle Giffords and her Jewish pride. Her paternal grandfather, the son of a Lithuanian rabbi, changed his name to Giff Giffords for anti-Semitic reasons. On her campaign website, Giffords wrote, "Growing up, my family's Jewish roots and tradition played an important role in shaping my values. The women in my family served as strong role models for me as a girl. In my family, if you want to get something done, you take it to the women relatives! Like my grandmother, I am a lifetime member of Hadassah and now a member of Congregation Chaverim. When I served in the State Senate in Arizona, I had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I will always be a strong supporter of Israel. As the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, Israel is a vital strategic ally of the United States. As a woman and as a Jew, I will always work to ensure that the United States stands with Israel to jointly ensure our mutual safety, security, and prosperity."
The Jerusalem Post was the first publication to state emphatically that Giffords' Jewishness shouldn't be questioned. In fact, in their editorial "Learning Judaism From Giffords," they wrote, "With all our desire for a universally accepted definition of 'Who is a Jew?' that would unify the Jewish people, we cannot ignore the complicated reality that many 'non-Jews' are much more Jewish than their 'Jewish' fellows. Congresswoman Giffords is one of them."
In her "In the Mix" blog at The Jewish Week, Julie Wiener wrote of how Giffords' Jewishness is shining a spotlight on the "who is a Jew" debate. In her article, "Plight of the Patrilineals," Weiner cited blogger "Kung Fu Jew," who posted his angry rant on the JewSchool blog about how Giffords is "Jewish enough for the Jewish community to own a side-show of the media circus. Jewish enough to be our martyr, it seems, but not Jewish enough to be treated equally in life." He has a point here. I'm sure many synagogues will offer prayers of healing for Rep. Giffords this Shabbat and recognize her as a Jewish member of Congress, yet they would be violating their own religious policy if they ever called her to the Torah for an aliyah honor.
I really wish we had a consensus on what determines Jewish status through lineage, even if only in the non-Orthodox Jewish community. Certainly, we cannot continue to make an exception for athletes, celebrities, and politicians of Jewish patrilineal descent. I'm in agreement with the Jerusalem Post on this matter. If Rep. Gabrielle Giffords considers herself Jewish because her father is Jewish and she lives a Jewish life, then she's Jewish.
May Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (Gavriela bat Gloria v'Spencer) be granted a speedy and complete recovery.
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Diana Butler Bass: Gabby Opened Her Eyes and We Should Too
RABBI IRWIN KULA: "In our networked open source world with increasing numbers of mixers, blenders, benders, and switchers, and diminished institutional reach and authority, 'Who is a Jew' is of diminishing Interest to increasing numbers. I am always more interested in the emerging markets than existing markets, but as a pluralist I appreciate insiders arguing their positions."
RABBI KERRY OLITZKY: "It's time to open up a variety of approaches to conversion and validate all of them. We have spent too long keeping people out. Now it is time to welcome them in. Right now, the only option is religious conversion, but what about the many Jews who identity through other means. And if Rabbi Kula is right, and I believe he is, and Judaism has entered the marketplace of ideas, then we have to be willing to validate other paths in."
Assume a non-Jew wishes to convert; and with profound sincerity and deep conviction, observes - exclusively - all practises, beliefs and traditions of the Jewish faith. Surely, he/she is worthy of acceptance?
Some sections think not. Is this based on the strict concept of ancestry from Abraham?
Query: Has any rabbi discussed the implications of the modern DNA evidence for the existence of a mitochondrial Eve, which means we are all related matrilineally?
That is absolutely false. In today's world, if you are born of a Jewish mother, and perhaps raised as a Catholic (including ) baptism, the child is still considered a Jew. It has nothing to do with "claiming identity". There is nothing to be claimed, it is totally, 100% biologically inherited. If the child's mother is not Jewish, and is being raised as a Jew in the Reform movement, because the father is Jewish, then you can say the Jewish identity was "claimed". However, the traditional branches of Conservative and Orthodox Judaism do not recognize the concept of "claiming identity". For them, the child is a Jew only if born to a Jewish mother, or is formally converted and has been immersed in a mikvah (ritual bath).
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/whojew1.html
According to Reform Judaism, a person is a Jew if they were born to either a Jewish mother or a Jewish father. Also, Reform Judaism stresses the importance of being raised Jewish; if a child is born to Jewish parents and was not raised Jewish then the child is not considered Jewish.
I was raised Baptist and have been abandoning what I viewed as flawed rules ever since I was legally an adult.
As for being "the chosen people" I believe we are all God's children.
The premise behind this whole theory is you can't trust the fidelity of woman who are married to Jewish men, what about we get a DNA test on all these kids can they be considered Jewish then?
As an atheist I will not be preying in the formal sense. However, my thoughts and hopes - for everyone, regardless of belief - are constant and sincere.
To be clear, like Congresswoman Giffords, I am not Jewish enough to be considered a Jew by many Jews.
Do I consider myself a Jew? Of course.