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"Who is a Jew?" is a fundamental question for us. Is it merely a matter of personal choice? Do you have to be practising? Or does it depend on whether you have a Jewish ancestor?
Views differ, but not in the Orthodox tradition - until now. Orthodoxy usually finds its answers in God's revelation at Sinai. But He Himself never pronounced on the matter. Nonetheless, Orthodox rabbis have, for two millennia, required that your mother be Jewish, or that you have converted under their own heavily demanding conversion procedures.
This is all codified in the second century CE Mishnah (Kiddushin, 3:12.) One's father's Jewish status is barely relevant, if at all. Many Orthodox Jews believe the rule stems from Divine revelation at Mount Sinai.
My hero, the late Elio Toaff, when Rome's Chief Rabbi, facilitated the integration into the Orthodox community of those with Jewish fathers, but gentile mothers. His successor, Rav Shmuel Di Segni, moved quickly, however, towards adopting the standard Orthodox approach, as set out in the Mishnah. Elio Toaff was not followed.
So it is against the current orthodoxy of the Orthodox, that the youthful new Chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, has courageously offered a broader, more embracing answer to "Who is a Jew?" For he has accepted an additional group as Jewish - those children of Jewish fathers, who've "regularised their status as Jews." (The exact meaning of that phrase is a subject all its own.) This initiative, if pursued, could make modern Orthodoxy more accessible, and significantly increase the supply of potential marital partners. It could also facilitate better relations among Jewish denominations.
Haim Korsia is the spiritual head of Europe's largest Orthodox Jewish community, half-a-million strong, and his views carry weight. He set them out, in a speech to Limoud (France's Limmud.) I was present.
He reasoned that children of gentile mothers, but Jewish fathers, who wanted to be fully part of the Jewish People, already had something Jewish in their identity. They should be considered as "regularising their Jewish status through increased observance," rather than seen as "converting… We should receive them with respect," he emphasised, "and welcome them to the synagogue." This is unprecedented for the leader of such a large, Orthodox community.
Harvard Professor Shaye Cohen has rightly argued that in biblical times, the children of non-Jewish mothers and Jewish fathers living as Jews, were considered as fully Jewish:
"Numerous Israelites heroes and kings married foreign women: it never occurred to anyone in pre-exilic times to argue that such marriages were null and void, that foreign women must "convert" to Judaism, or that the offspring of the marriages were not Israelite if the women did not convert."
Why therefore is today's normative Orthodox rule more restrictive than biblical practice? Why does it require placing the same onerous obstacles before children of Jewish fathers and gentile mothers, as is done to fully gentile would-be converts, before accepting them as Jews? The reason is to test their resolve. Jewish clergy argue that righteous gentiles are accepted by God, so there is no need to proselytise non-believers to Judaism. The Orthodox add that to take upon oneself membership of what aims to be a "holy people," requires a total commitment to the faith's entire values. They therefore insist on full compliance with Jewish law and observance.
During a period when it was not possible to prove beyond any doubt who one's father was, the Mishnaic matrilineal rule was prudent, in ensuring that a child was of Jewish descent. Now that a father's DNA can be checked, why not allow children of Jewish fathers to be fully accepted as Jews, in Orthodox circles too?
What motivates Rav Korsia's call for change? Perhaps ever-increasing marriages outside the faith, a dwindling community in France, and existential threats to the Jewish state, make many realise, now more than at any time since the Holocaust, that Jewry's very survival is at stake. Some Jews are becoming more accepting of other Jews, as we saw in Chief Rabbi Mirvis's attending Limmud UK recently, a first for a Chief Rabbi.
Sadly, Chief Rabbi Korsia's views will initially be rejected by his more fundamentalist colleagues, for whom tradition is sacrosanct. But biblical practice, common sense and science are on his side. Christianity and Islam have been wise in embracing all those who want to be part of their faith, whatever their parentage. Orthodox Judaism would be prudent to do the same.
