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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, March 9, 1984 5
Two Reform Rabbis Say Ancient
Jews Used Patrilineal Descent
By BEN GALLOB
(Copyright 1984, JTA, Inc.)
The decision by the
American Reform rabbi-
nate which would allow con-
ferring Jewish status on a
child of a mixed marriage,
regardless of whether either
parent has a Jewish mother,
is supported by biblical and
rabbinic sources, according
to an article in the Journal
of Reform Judaism.
The vote in the 1983 con-
vention last March in Los
Angeles
__
„ _r by the Central Con-
A
the association of Reform
rabbis, would confer Jewish
status on the child of a
Jewish father and a non-
Jewish mother, or a non-
Jewish father and a Jewish
mother, provided the child
was raised Jewishly.
In the article, Rabbi
Phillip Hiat, assistant to
the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations
president, and Rabbi
Bernard Zlotowitz, direc-
tor of the New York Fed-
eration of Reform Syna-
gogues, contended that
the Jewish rule of deter-
mining the status of the
child on the basis of the
mother's religious iden-
tity is a rabbinic innova-
tion and does not follow
biblical practice or ob-
servance.
They cited a variety of bi-
blical sources to validate
their thesis that, from ear-
-
—
liest times, the religious one proviso: to validate
status of the child was de- the Jewishness of the
termined by the religion of child of such biblical
the father rather than of the heroes as Joseph, Moses
and Solomon, who mar-
mother.
They declared that, in cit- ried non-Jewish wives,
ing the lineage of the mat- the Talmud did not apply
riarchs Rebecca and Rachel, the ruling retroactively.
the Hebrew Scriptures re-
The two Reform rabbis
fers to them as the daugh- concluded that "patrilineal
ters of their father, omitting descent was a legitimate
any reference to their basis for lineage in the Bi-
mother. The two Reform ble" and "the rabbinic shift
rabbis also quoted the bibli-
to exclusive reliance on
cal passages describing the matrilineal descent was
marriages of Joseph and , originally intended to
Moses to the daughters of preserve - the `Kehuna'
- paga ns , u. Laic;
acceptance of their sans as later expanded to include
full-fledged Jews, as addi- the total people of Israel."
tional evidence that pat-
rilineal descent was the
"For these reasons," they
standard from ancient
declared, "we are on very
times.
legitimate grounds in ac-
They asserted that des- ,cepting as Jewish the child
cent and status in Judaism of either a Jewish father or a
were determined through Jewish mother" under the
the male line until the conditions set forth in the
period of Ezra and CCAR resolution.
Nehemiah in the Sixth Cen-
tury BCE. Then, in the face PLO Harassment
of a rising rate of mixed
COPENHAGEN (ZINS)
marriages, they added, a
series of decrees was issued — A Danish officer with the
resulting in the banishing United Nations forces in
of foreign wives and their Lebanon told a Danish
children and defining newspaper that the PLO
Jewishness of a child on the used the refugee camps in
basis of a mother's religious Lebanon as terrorist train-
ing sites.
status.
According to the arti-
Meyer Midam said that
cle, the Mishna and the the PLO intercepted UN
Gemara later reinforced cars, harassed observers
the matrilineal interpre- and even confiscated their
tation by Ezra but with weapons.
LsiabtisIled 1919
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