Historically, since the Rabbinic period (post 70 CE), Jewish status was passed down by the mother. This is known as "matrilineal descent." A child of a Jewish mother is considered Jewish, even if the father is not. Prior to this period, the Bible recognized patrilineal descent, whereby one’s Jewish status was determined by one’s father.
In 1983, the Reform Movement adopted the principle of patrilineal descent. This is a bit of a misnomer. Reform Judaism in the United States considers a child of an interfaith couple to be Jewish if one parent is Jewish, the child is raised as a Jew and receives a Jewish education, and celebrates appropriate life cycle events, such as receiving a Hebrew name and becoming bar or bat mitzvah. This also assumes that the child is being raised exclusively as a Jew without practicing another religion.
Is the Child of an Interfaith Couple Considered Jewish?
