[lbo-talk] Re: who is jewish

[joanna bujes]

At 10:22 AM 05/01/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Interesting. I don't quite follow why "jews" needed to convert to
>become jewish. Presumably some kind of technicality, but that isn't
>important. The important thing is, your mother doesn't have to be
>"Jewish". Since one can convert. So we can rule that out as a useful
>definition. Perhaps the implication of the motherhood definition is
>that one cannot get out of being "Jewish" quite so easily? That is,
>sharing the religious dogma isn't crucial.

I think the motherhood things dates back to late biblical times when 
pillage and rapine ruled. In those cases where Jewish women were raped, the 
Jewish community wished to retain those babies, and therefore decided that 
it was the mother who determined the religion of the child.

Joanna