Shalom, this video is about the question of who is a Jew. Now, sometimes, I read in a media that somebody says they are Jewish. They identify as a Jew but they have no connection. They were never been converted. They were not born to a Jew. They just feel like they are Jewish.
It does not really work that way. I know we live in a society where people changed political alliances. They changed religions but we are people and we have rules about how one becomes a member of the people. You cannot just say, “I am a Jew,” although it was very nice. You wanted to become a Jew so you can be a Jew but here is how.
Classically, in the Bible, if you read the Bible it is clear that it was the Father who determined who was a Jew. Then, about 2000 years ago, and we really do not know why, there are a lot of speculations, but we are really not sure maybe, it has to do with the change in Roman law at the time. It is easier to know who the mother is.
For the last 2000 years, if your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish. Now, you have the question of surrogacy, is it the birth mother or the end provider. It turns that we believe it is the birth mother that determines if it is the Jew.
Some years ago, the Reform and Reconstruction Movement has decided that it should be either, if either of parents are Jewish and the child is raised as a Jew they should be considered Jewish. They call that the ‘patrilineal’ option. The last 2000 years, it has been matrilineal, the mother. The Reform and Reconstruction is basically saying either and that has never been done in Jews, never done before in either in Jewish history.
What we have today is basically the orthodox and the conservative say it is the mother, the Reform and Reconstruction say it is either. So either the situations periodically aware, so many comes to me who was raised in a reform synagogue or reconstruction synagogue, their view is Jewish because their father was Jewish and the mother never converted and the rabbis told them they were Jewish, but inside they have been fully Jewish. But in our eyes and in the eyes of the orthodox, they are technically not Jewish for they need a conversion ceremony, so I convert them.
So, that means the second way one can be Jewish which is conversion. And again the conservative rabbi has said, “In order to convert you, you have to undergo immersion and if you are a male you have to be circumcised and if you are already circumcised it has to be done ritually. So, if it was not done ritually when you are born then you have to have a symbolic circumcision probably drawn from the site of circumcision and blessed by the moral or the person who does it.
And you need to bathe in a religious tribunal, but if you convert traditionally then you are Jewish. There is a big disagreement here, the orthodox do not accept in general non orthodox conversions, that is their problem and we convert a lot of people and basically believed that you are Jewish if you convert or if you are born to a Jewish mother.
Some years ago, the Knesset in Israel put up for a voted change in Law of Return. Law of Return basically is a law in Israel that says that anybody who is Jewish can be a citizen of Israel. It is to protect Jewish against situation like the holocaust where Jews have nowhere to go.
The Orthodox want to change the language in the Law of Return to say that conversion have to be done according to Halacha which is to exclude non-Orthodox Jew and there is a big storm because it does not affect that many people who want to making Eliayahu converted by non-Orthodox rabbis but it symbolically was very hurtful to non-Orthodox Jury. It was defeated by two votes out of 120 in the Knesset.
So, currently the law is today convert from non-Orthodox rabbi can be admitted under the Law of Return, but the although Orthodox rabbis still want the issues in the country so they only recognized Orthodox conversions, not even all Orthodox conversions.
So, that largely is the issue of who is a Jew. In some, traditionally if you are born to a Jewish mother or you convert traditionally—you are Jewish. The Reform and Reconstruction would say, if you are born to either a Jewish mother or father and you are raised as a Jew, then you are Jewish or you can convert and they have uneven standards. They do not all require immersion ritual and circumcision. That is basically the issue of who is a Jew.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services