Question

Some time ago, there was a discussion of whether or not the children of intermarriage should be raised as Jews. I contended that a Jewish woman who marries out still was the halachic obligation to raise her kids as Jews. True or not?

Answer

Jewishness is passed on via the mother. If the mother is Jewish, the child is 100 percent Jewish. This is true regardless of who the father is, and whether he is Jewish or not, and irregardless of whether the Jewish mother practiced another religion. That is the unwavering rule. At the same time, if someone's father is Jewish (but not the mother), then the child is 100 percent NOT Jewish.

Jewish identity passed on through the mother has been universally accepted by Jews for 3,000 years, and was decided by God. The rabbis and the people of Israel simply passed on the information from generation to generation. This is recorded in the Five Books of Moses in Deut. 7:3-4. The Talmud (Kiddushin 68b) explains how this law is evident from those passages.