I've always heard that if your mother was Jewish you were Jewish. This was to take into consideration the fact that many Jewish widows found themselves "married" to demobilized Roman soldiers after they put down the revolt. I've also heard that Judaism is viewed more as a family, than a religion. That is the reason why you never see a Jewish missionary trying to convert anybody.

the Talmud, quoting verses in the Torah, states that the child of a jewish woman is jewish and the child of a nonjewish woman is not jewish. there is no argument about this fact from those who accept the oral Torah with the written Torah. therefore Kate, this is written in the Torah and the notion that the practice originated at Yavneh or anywhere else aside from the Torah itself is completely false. as for #19, the above mentioned are the facts, but good question about in-vitro fertilization - see your local orthodox rabbi because he's the one who knows the Torah's answer. if you're following a conservative or reform or otherwise "rabbi," they're not giving you the Torah's answer. period.

What you are referring to as "Jewish" - is actually "Halachically Jewish". This "Halacha" is no longer accepted by the entire Jewish people nor by all rabbis. Orthodox or traditional "Halacha" was established by the Jewish people in an historical context and bound by their leaders, accepted by their communities and transferred through many generations. Then things changed. Many Jewish communities and their rabbis felt that this Halacha (law) required reinterpretation. Your comparison to a neurosurgeon is not accurate or even applicable. Neurosurgeon's have never decided who is a neurosurgeon. They have never had the power to appoint leaders to make those decisions. If they had - lives would be lost. No one's life is endangered or lost when a group of Jews decide that ancient laws require reinterpretation.

Seems the only purpose of this made-up story is to make the Missing Yemenite Children issue surface again from time to time

he sure is jewish. how youre raised is irrelevant

By the way, with all the new technology, it is no longer true that we can only know for sure who the mother is; to the contrary, it is quite possible this days that the father is a true genetic parent, while the ‘mother’ who gave the birth is only an incubator, with no genetic connection, which makes the old law no longer truly relevant, but even silly. Would a child born to a Jewish woman implanted with an ovum of a gentile woman be Jewish or gentile? I don't understand your confusion. Apparently Jewish descent is based on maternal genetics, not incubation. Technology doesn't change any of this.

the worst pain is to lose ones own child. this is such a bad pain that I would not wish it to even the worst evil people on earth. we we never know of such a thing. how can G-d allow such a thing i never will know and frankly never ever want to know