I have a question…

One of my cousins on my father’s side is Jewish. She converted 45 years ago when she married a Jewish man, and they’ve raised their son and daughter as Jewish, including Bar and Bat Mitzvah. She keeps a kosher home still, even after her husband passed away, and was going to the synagogue regularly (before Covid). She keeps a mezuzah on her door. She recently told me that a kid (twenty-something) told her "well, you’re not [b]really[/b] Jewish, and your kids aren’t really Jewish either. Their mother has to be Jewish, not just their father." My cousin told him, "My children [b]were[/b] born to a Jewish mother." She was very offended. Once you convert, don’t you become part of the community ? 🤔

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Northwest · M

Typically, you are Jewish only if you're born to a Jewish mother. At one point, conversion would have been impossible into Orthodox Judaism. Today, there are quite a few branches within Judaism, and conversion is usually possible, and accepted by the less stringent branches, but not the other way around.

For instance, I am an atheist, but one group insisted I was Jewish, because my mother is Jewish.

bijouxbroussard · F

@Northwest As others have said, "ethnically" Jewish, though not religious. I have a [b]lot[/b] of friends who fall into that category. 🙂