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**BloofPailafum** · 09-13-2010, 09:39 PM

I also heard that the reason why you're a Jew if your mother is a Jew is because back in the day (When there was no genetic tests), they knew 100% who your mother was since you come out of her, but with your father it's an assumption that he is the father, one can never be 100% sure with the paternal side.

That could possibly be an explanation. I've heard/read that Jews began passing on their ancestry via the mother because many Jewish women were being taken/married off to non-Jews. Passing the ancestry down maternally allowed the community to claim the offspring that were produced outside of the community. Pretty clever decision, helped community attain access to power/resources/etc; Jewish woman marries a King... offspring (princes/princesses) are still seen as Jewish. And since the rest of the world recognizes paternal ancestry, the offspring are still believed to be their father's descendants. Same goes for Jewish males; they marry a non-Jew and the rest of the world (including Jews) would still sees them as Jews.

Me personally? I think Judaism is more of a religion than an ethnic group, not that there are no real Jews out there, but the fact that you allow people of total different heritage to convert and become Jews right off the bat allows the gene pool to be mixed, which makes the definition of ethnic group rather difficult, you also cannot say that these people are never Jewish because the reality is, those who convert and actually live up to it become real Jews and start marrying Jews, which they pass their genes to the real Jews. Judaism is a religion. But being Jewish is more ambiguous/complex.

09-13-2010, 09:39 PM	#22
BloofPailafum Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 357 Senior Member	I also heard that the reason why you're a Jew if your mother is a Jew is because back in the day (When there was no genetic tests), they knew 100% who your mother was since you come out of her, but with your father it's an assumption that he is the father, one can never be 100% sure with the paternal side. That could possibly be an explanation. I've heard/read that Jews began passing on their ancestry via the mother because many Jewish women were being taken/married off to non-Jews. Passing the ancestry down maternally allowed the community to claim the offspring that were produced outside of the community. Pretty clever decision, helped community attain access to power/resources/etc; Jewish woman marries a King... offspring (princes/princesses) are still seen as Jewish. And since the rest of the world recognizes paternal ancestry, the offspring are still believed to be their father's descendants. Same goes for Jewish males; they marry a non-Jew and the rest of the world (including Jews) would still sees them as Jews. Me personally? I think Judaism is more of a religion than an ethnic group, not that there are no real Jews out there, but the fact that you allow people of total different heritage to convert and become Jews right off the bat allows the gene pool to be mixed, which makes the definition of ethnic group rather difficult, you also cannot say that these people are never Jewish because the reality is, those who convert and actually live up to it become real Jews and start marrying Jews, which they pass their genes to the real Jews. Judaism is a religion. But being Jewish is more ambiguous/complex.
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