[ANON POST] Bio Child of Non-Jewish Woman + Jewish Sperm Donor = Jewish?

[orange_fell]

EDIT BY MOD: When I posted this, I initially misread the question and put that the bio mom was Jewish in the subject line. Corrected now. On to the post!Setting is modern-day US

Comments

[otempora541]

Ah. Jewish law. Welcome to being Jewish.

Reform Jews (maybe reconstructionists but don't quote me on that) do accept the patrilineal line as a claim to Judaism- remember, Israel counts paternal grandfathers as valid claims. Because this is a sperm donor versus traditional fathers that might be a more interesting case, but I think most reform rabbis would accept the kids as Jewish. I think you can do it as either/or depending on the story, mostly because this is such a new topic, and blame the local rabbi.

[hagar_972]

Correction: Israel accepts patrilineal claims for citizenship (Law of Return), not for determining religious affiliation.

That is, any person with one Jewish grandparent (regardless of which grandparent) is entitled to Israeli citizenship, but you're only Jewish (a) your birth mom is Jewish or (b) you converted.

[anonymous]

Kind of eerily, this is my situation. In my case, although neither of my parents who raised me were Jewish, my mom did start me in Hebrew school as a kid, and I was bat mitzvah'd. Because of these two facts (one biological parent who was Jewish, plus raised in the faith), I have been accepted as Jewish in every Reform community I've encountered. However, if I hadn't been exposed to Judaism as a kid, I don't think this would be the case. Certainly, if I hadn't had a bat mitzvah, I think I would feel like I would need to convert in order to go to a Reform synagogue.

[fjm]

Yes. And I discovered a few years back that "the mother is Jewish" holds on,y three generations.

[hagar_972]

The legal situation in Israel, which follows Orthodox agreement, is that the birth mother is the determining factor. The father doesn't matter; if the child is conceived via egg donation or surrogacy, the birth mother determines and not the genetic mother

[spikesjojo]

A Jewish father is not enough to consider the child a Jew. My older brother and his wife (Catholic) had their two children converted at birth. My husband (Catholic Arab) and I didn't need to convert our 2 children. Keep in mind that Jews are part of a tribal structure that goes back to the bronze age. With no way of testing paternity, Judaism is always inherited through the mother.

We were raised Reform. I don't think this is a rule that can be overturned by any denomination since it is basic to the faith/tribe.