When my husband read an early draft of this essay, he asked,
"Why doesn't her partner have to support our daughter? After
all, they agreed to raise children as Jews." What does it mean
to raise a Jewish child?Go To Parenting The Reform movement is
often praised–or villified, depending on what circles you’re
in–for its 1983 decision to recognize the children of non-Jewish
mothers and Jewish fathers as Jews. It is rightly considered a
watershed moment in the Jewish community’s response to
intermarriage, and is a major reason why most affiliated
interfaith families are members of Reform synagogues. As
important as that 1983 decision was, the Reform movement was not
the first Jewish movement to officially recognize the legitimacy
of patrilineal descent. The Reconstructionist movement made a
similar decision–15 years earlier. These conditions are quite
similar to the Reform rabbinate’s 1983 resolution, which also
says that children of non-Jewish mothers can only be identified
as Jewish if the parents take steps to