Jew By Birth?

I’m 71 year old man. My great-grandmother’s (my mother’s mother’s mother) Jewish family immigrated from Poland in the late 1800s. I first visited a synagogue when I was 14 years old and was told because it was on my mother side that I was Jewish. I know nothing of the Jewish faith other than from my Christian upbringing, but I feel a desire to know more. Where can I start please? Am I a Jew by birth?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

As it appears you realize, one whose mother is Jewish, is also Jewish. One whose mother is not Jewish, is not Jewish even if the father is Jewish. Therefore, one who can trace one’s lineage back through Jewish women is Jewish no matter what religion these people did or did not practice.

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.

If you are sure that you descend from Jewish women you should definitely reach out to your local orthodox rabbi and join the Jewish community! It’s never too late. You can also go to the many websites that have all kinds of Torah knowledge for you to learn from, such as aish.com. ArtScroll.com

With blessings!