Hi, My name is Emily, My question is "Am I Jewish "? I have been told that unless my family members that were Jewish,were from my mother's side of our family I couldn't claim my Jewish Roots is this true? I'm very confused, why should it make any difference or does it?

ScottGem

Some Jewish tradition holds that if your mother is Jewish then you are Jewish. Other sects say it doesn't matter as long as some ancestor was Jewish then you are, at least partially Jewish.

I am curious as to why this is an issue with you? Were you raised Jewish? Do you practice Judiasm?

orange

Scott is absolutely right. Some Jewish religious traditions, such as the Orthodox, hold that you are only Jewish if your mother is Jewish. Other more modern traditions such as Reform say that you only need to have a Jewish father, or in that case, really any Jewish descendent to be considered Jewish.

Perhaps you are confused because you are thinking of Judaism as solely a religion, which it's not. It's the religious tradition of the Jewish people, and while Jews are not a race, we do have a cultural heritage apart from our religious beliefs. Many Jews are not religious at all (some are even atheists!) but still proud to be Jewish.

Like Scott I'm interested in your particular situation as well. I hope you post more. You could also discuss the situation with a rabbi. I would suggest choosing a more "modern" rabbi though, such as one from the Reform or Reconstructionist movement, as depending on your family situation, they will probably be a lot more open to speaking with you about this.

kiwimac

You might want to check out the web-sites for both the Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish movements.

Reconstructionism: http://www.jrf.org/recon/whois.html

Reform: http://rj.org/whatisrj.shtml

I hope these sites are useful to you.

Morganite

It all depends on who you ask, and on what you yourself believe. The 'wisdom' that Jewishness is received from the mother has been said to be definitive for being born a Jew because "It is a wise child that knows his own father." However, that is not the end of the story.

A person born to a Jewish family is Jewish. A child with one Jewish parent can claim to be Jewish it if it wishes. A convert to Judaism (although conversion is discouraged as unnecessary) is Jewish. There are distinctions made between religious Jews, Cultural Jews, and Jews (Israelis) by national identity or citizenship.

You alone can decide if you are Jewish. What reasons do you have for believing that you are?


I snatched the following from the Internet.

# a person belonging to the worldwide group claiming descent from Jacob (or converted to it) and connected by cultural or religious ties
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

# The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for a consideration of the religion, please refer to Judaism.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew

# From the Hebrew name of the patriarch Judah, whose name also came to designate the tribe and tribal district in which Jerusalem was located. Thus, the inhabitants of Judah and members of the tribe of Judah come to be called "Judahites" or, in short form, "Jews." The religious outlook associated with these people after about the 6th century BCE comes to be called "Judaism," and has varying characteristics at different times and places: see especially early Judaism, rabbinic Judaism. ...
www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp

# comes from the word "Judean" and today is used to describe any or all of the below in most any combination: per a religious standard, anyone who practices Judaism (the modern name for Talmudism) per the Talmud other racist standards, such as Nazism, anyone whose mother is a Jew (which begs the question) per eretz Israel's "Law of Return," someone whose mother is a Jew and who does not practice a religion other than Judaism (ie, a "Jew" can be an atheist and can still be called a "Jew. ...
www.kensmen.com/catholic/terminologynotes.html

# a member of a nation existing in Palestine from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD Or one whose religion is Judaism
www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/dictionary/MiddleEast.htm

# Yehudi, a member of the tribe of Yehudah. The area in Israel assigned to them by God is call Yehudah. The world has foolishly decided to call it Palestine and assign it to the Muslims. ["It is an fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God", Hebrews 10:31] The plural of Yehudi is Yehudim. The word "Jews" is now used to refer to members of all the tribes. There is a stained glass display in Ben-Gurion Airport that has the coats of arms of all the tribes.
www.new-testament-study-bible.com/Dict-Ency.htm

# A descendant of Abraham whose religion is Judaism.
www.godonthe.net/dictionary/j.html

# A DESCENDENT OF JUDAH. In its narrowest definition a jew is descendant of Abraham through Judah. However many of the Jews living in the territory of Judea were actually descendants of other tribes, such as Levites, and Benjaminites or in some cases there were proselytes to the faith (ie Ruth). In a broader sense, Jews were those who lived in Judea and held allegiance to Moses (who was not a Jew but a Levite). ...
www.ida.net/users/rdk/ces/definitions.html

M

s_cianci

My understanding of the Jewish faith is that, if your mother is Jewish, then so are you.

Light-Healer

Yes, in the Jewish faith, one's roots depend on one's mother. If you are feeling a 'pull' towards Judaism, perhaps it would be worth your while investigating your roots. A person who is not Jewish by birth, can nonetheless still 'become' Jewish, by undergoing the necessary training and ritual. There is also a tradition that there are souls amongst the nations that, together with the Jewish people, accepted the Law at it's giving on Mt Sinai. These people do eventually find their path back to Judaism.
I hope this has been helpful.