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Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Worship, Conversion, Intermarriage (5/12) Previous Document: Question 10.1: Does Halacha (Jewish law) permit intermarriage? Next Document: Question 10.3: I'm a Jew who accepted the tenets of another religion, but now wants to practice Judaism again. Am I allowed? Am See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Answer:
Yes. Marriage doesn't change your status.
With respect to your children, according to Conservative and Orthodox
Judaism, the children of Jewish mothers are Jewish, and the children
of gentile women are gentile unless converted. (An adult who converts
must accept the Obligation of the Commandments at the time of
conversion. A child who converts delays this acceptance until age 13
(12 for girls), thereby validating the childhood-conversion. If he
doesn't accept the commandments, he is not considered Jewish.)
Reform requires that a child born of a mixed marriage identify
publicly with Judaism (e.g., have a Jewish naming, Brit (if
appropriate), Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Confirmation, etc.) to be considered
Jewish by Reform. This is called the [5]"patrilineal descent"
decision.
The liberal Jewish movements (Reform, Progressive) often try to work
with intermarried couples to encourage them to remain involved in
Judaism, to raise their children as Jewish (with subsequent formal
conversion, or to meet the requirements for Reform Judaism), and to
educate the non-Jewish partner so that Jewish life at home is not
sabotaged (often, as a side-effect of this, the non-Jewish partner
makes an independent decision to convert). There is a group that works
on promoting services to intermarried families, called the [6]Jewish
Outreach Institute (JOI) <[7]http://www.joi.org/>. Since 1989, this
group has held several national conferences for Jewish communal
professionals and lay leaders to foster expertise in programming for
the nearly 600,000 intermarried families and their more than 700,000
children in North America. If you are interested in JOI's publications
or obtaining a directory of services, visit their [8]homepage, write
them at 1270 Broadway, Suite 609 New York NY 10001; contacted them via
Email at [9]info@joi.org, or via telephone at +1-212-760-1440.
User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Worship, Conversion, Intermarriage (5/12) Previous Document: Question 10.1: Does Halacha (Jewish law) permit intermarriage? Next Document: Question 10.3: I'm a Jew who accepted the tenets of another religion, but now wants to practice Judaism again. Am I allowed? Am Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: SCJ FAQ Maintainer <maintainer@scjfaq.org>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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