One Step Closer

In the never ending battle over what "Jewish" really means, Yossi Beilin offers yet a new argument as to how Jewish identity should be determined:

"Just like we declared Reform conversions completed abroad acceptable in Israel, even though the Orthodox will never recognize them, so, to, we must decide to accept patrilineal descent, without regard for Jewish law."

The real kicker is that patrilineal descent IS Jewish Law. There's a reason we call HaShem "the G-d of Avraham, Yitzach, and Yakkov" in the Amidah. Up until the Diaspora, during which Jewish communities in Eastern Europe especially were pillaged and their women raped, Jewish lineage was traced through the father's line. Only after so many Jewesses were raped by goyim and gave birth to bastard children did the Rabbis change the law to state that Jewishness was passed through the mother's side.

Recognizing Jewishness through the patriarchy is another step closer to our identity as the Chosen People, and another step further away from the bastardized Jewishness of the Diaspora.