Jewish Scene
Can 'Jewishness' be proven with a simple saliva test?
Elisha Ben Kimon
Published: 28.05.17, 15:52
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22 Talkbacks for this article
1. Just DON'T! Don't give the Rabbinate more power& more
(05.28.17)
important: don't get married through this unholy institution!
2. Hebrew Law
Amnon   (05.28.17)
"In Jewish religious law, only those born to Jewish mothers are considered Jewish." Incorrect, and taking this for granted is evidence of how far the rabbinical monopoly over Judaism has extended. This is rabbinic law, not Jewish law. In the Bible (biblical law, or the religion of the Israelites), there are numerous examples where the only Hebrew parent is the father. Also, just as a side thought, how about we drop eugenics arguments over Jewishness. It's just embarrassing, really to say the very least.
3. Is the Chief Rabbinate adopting Arian-/non-Aryan laws
Alexander Scheiner ,   Israel   (05.29.17)
from the Nazi times in Germany?

During 2nd ww Germans had to proof their Aryan ancestry with documents.

In Israel, the Chief Rabbinate will use a saliva-test.

Both are based on the very same racist theories. Those insisting on these tests must have genes from devils. Fie!
4. really????
Steven Kaplan ,   Fayetteville   (05.29.17)
So, let me get this straight. Doing the saliva test, someone who converted in an Orthodox ceremony and observes halacha, will test negative...while someone who was born Jewish, but converted to Christianity, married a Christian, and raised his/her children as Christians will test as "Jewish"...makes perfect sense to me :)
5. Who was David's mother?
Chavah Fried ,   Jerusalem   (05.29.17)
King David's father was Yishay, Yishay's father was Oved and Oved's father was Boaz and Oved's mother was Ruth, a convert. Who was Yisha's mother? Who was David's mother? I don't know Tenach well enough to say. Are the mothers mentioned? I do know that David got a lot of flack for the fact that his grandfather's mother was a convert and for quite a long time David was shunned. There were many who didn't think David was kosher enough to be a Jew, much less king! Now days, of course there are people who pride themselves that they can track their genealogy all the way back to king David!! How funny! I'm a convert and no one is looking to hook their genealogy wagon to mine! It's erev Shavuot folks! We read the book of Ruth! We receive the Torah! I'm contemplating a lot about what it means to me to be a Jew. It has more to do with how I interact with others and connect with my mission as a Jew and nothing to do with DNA.
6. A word to the wise...
Sheila Ramon ,   Haifa   (05.29.17)
Faith has never been proven to be hereditary. We Jews are flesh and blood human beings like everyone else. Our genealogy works the same way as theirs.
7. Jewish DNA
Deb Aubespin ,   Louisville   (05.31.17)
The problem is perhaps 40-50% of Jewish women come back with their haplotype as a standard European H which speaks to the huge numbers of marriages between Jewish men and native European women over a thousand years ago.
8. The outward indicator of a Cohen which is a Jewish line
Rivkah   (05.31.17)
is a rose colored oval on the forehead that is slightly darker than the other skin around it. I have this on my forehead. It is the line of Priests, High Priests and Rabbis.
9. Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine, U. of Toronto
Prof W Seidelman MD ,   Beer-Sheva   (05.31.17)
In considering the application of this procedure, one must very carefully consider the question that, if accepted, the genetic analysis may also be considered by some as "scientific" validation of the Nuremberg Racial Laws.
10. # 2 Amnon, remember, there is also the story
BUILD BABY BUILD !!   (06.01.17)
of Adam and Eve, Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac.
The main difference being the mother not Abraham the father.
While the patriarch was important the mother was more so.
Recall, also Tamar and Judah.
Again, it was the mother.
Perhaps due to the fact that the mother would impart more time and explanation of Judaism.
Either way, glad there is a genetic marker of 'we' times and dictates change.
11. So patrilineal DNA isn't accepted but matrilineal will be?
Cohen   (06.01.17)
The rabbinate for years has rejected Jews by the fathers line despite the fact torah and tanakh show otherwise. There has been significant evidence Ashkenazi took european female converts from italy and the men were middle eastern, so please explain to me why someone whos Christian and has a mtdna marker should automatically become jewish? Who gets to define the "approved" marker?
12. THE SPITTING IMAGE
CAPTAIN SARCASTIC ,   SAFED CYNIC HOUSE   (06.04.17)
13. blood lines
(06.05.17)
it was a line of blood on a doorpost that saved the jewish people from the angel of death during passover.
14. Dr.
Joe Wyse ,   Hadera Israel   (06.12.17)
Judaism and Jewish descent is very potent stuff. It vastly transcends Biology and discredited race theories. Judaism is not concerned with purity of race, but is concerned with purity of living .judaism is neither purely a religion or a race , but a civilisation and culture with Torah at it's centre. We Jews are proud to be what the great Nations of the world despise, we are indeed mongrels and mixed descent. All these ideas that one's racial origin is somehow important are gentile obsessions, and those among us who fall for this nonsense are simply aping them.
Establishing whether this person or that person has certain DNA sequences predominantly carried by Jews has no bearing whatsoever on the only universally acceptable standard for Jewishness which is that established in the Mishnah (Kiddushin 3:12) and was codified at least as long ago as the time of Ezra, 4th century BCE !!!

A Jew is the son or daughter of a Jewish mother or a convert to Judaism. Furthermore, even if one's mother has renounced Judaism and converted to another religion, the son or daughter remains a Jew.
A convert to Judaism , according to Halacha, is a Jew and if that convert is a woman, she confers her Judaism upon her children whether or not she has a single so called Jewish DNA sequence or not ,

Finally, what a pity that so much scientific endeavour was wasted on this goyisher mishigas instead of doing what Jews are good at which is tikun Olam through good science, seeking cures for diseases or improving crop strains though genetics.
15. do we know whether it was accepted?
ds   (08.02.17)
Does anybody know the outcome of the conference at the Puah Institute?
16. Why?
Iron Duke   (11.17.18)
I thought only anti-Semites are obsessed with Jewish bloodlines and with defining "Jewishness" through race criteria. Why are there Jews now adopting these same discredited attitudes? Have they learned nothing? What happened to "Never again"?
17. The text is incorrect
Yaakov Hillel   (06.26.19)
Your message is correct. Conversion which is orthodox, is not any less good.
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