why "you're only jewish if your mother is jewish" is a shit perspective to have, a thread

1) converts don't necessarily have any jewish lineage, but they were there with us at sinai. halakha commands us to value and respect and welcome converts. "you're only jewish if your mother is jewish" directly contradicts that.

2) children who were raised jewish and have taken part in our customs deserve to be valued as part of our community. turning them away at the gate because of some writing is a) pendantic as hell and b) not really a drive to get them to "officially sign that paperwork", y'know?

2, cont.) ignoring patrilineal jews also ignores the evolving state of gender roles. if we're assuming kids only are raised jewish because their early life is sculpted by who's at home during the day, that may have held in the past - dad's at work, mom's on the jewish home.

2, cont.) but we KNOW that work/home balances are shifting now. there's more stay at home dads, more moms are in the workforce, and single parents are doing it all. not to mention that relationships should be egaltarian to begin with - men aren't off the hook for home life.

3) if only jewish women can have jewish children, that puts wildly unfair impetus on jewish women to have sex with men to build the community. that easily leads to coersion and guilt. women will be asked to have babies they don't want.

3, cont.) and who's to say that a jewish women will choose to raise her children in the faith, anyway? ESPECIALLY if the faith was TRYING TO COERCE HER TO HAVE SEX WITH MEN AND CARRY CHILDREN TO TERM.

4) so if a jewish trans man gives birth, is their child jewish? if a jewish trans woman is a parent, is their child jewish? if a jewish nonbinary person is a parent, is their child jewish? this line of questioning does not support trans jewish parents.

tl;dr: minding your business is free, if you weren't on the beit din you don't have a say, and your relationship with g-d is yours and yours alone.