Jewish Status
Question
I come from a Jewish family line and have attended Temple off and on since I left college. I attended 1year of Yeshiva in in Jerusalem 1980-198. I know the Law and have read the prophets since Yeshiva. Do I have to undergo formal conversion or can I simply return to attending Shul?
Answer
Shalom!
Thank you for writing to us.
You have said that you are from a Jewish family. As long as your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish. If only your father is Jewish, you will need conversion.
There are a number of sources that point to matrilineal lineage as being the determining factor if one is Jewish.
One source for this is the Mishna which clearly sates (Kiddushin 66b) that if the mother is not Jewish then the offspring is not Jewish. The Talmud (Kiddushin 68b) cites a verse to prove this “And you shall not marry with the non-Jews. Do not give your daughters to his sons; and do not take his daughters for your sons. For he will turn your son away from me and they will worship other gods” (Deut. 7:1-5). The Talmud elaborates on how this verse proves that lineage is determined by the mother.
There is another source cited to prove linage follows the mother. There is a verse in the Torah that states, “The son of an Israelite woman…who was the son of an Egyptian man” (Leviticus 24:10). The Torah tells us that even though his father wasn’t Jewish he was still “a member of the community of Israel” implying that lineage follows the mother.
In the book of Ezra we also find support for matrilineal descent. Regarding the Jews who returned from the Babylonian exile it says, “We have sinned against our God and have taken foreign wives of the people of the land….Let us make a covenant with our God to send away all the foreign wives and those who were born from them… let it be done according to the law” (Ezra 10:2-3). Here we see that the children of the “foreign wives” were “foreign” as well.
There are other sources, as well. I trust that this suffices. Again, if your mother is Jewish you should definitely return to attending your orthordox synagogue!