In recent years, the Reform movement has advocated a new position - one that goes entirely against the weight of Jewish law and tradition of thousands of years. According to the Reform movement, not only is a person with a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish, but the same is true for anyone with only a Jewish father (the so-called "patrilineal" amendment). As can be understood, the Orthodox oppose such a change totally, seeing it as the absolute abrogation of Jewish law. (We should note parenthetically that at a meeting of the Conservative Rabbinic Assembly, about 30% of the rabbis present voted to accept the patrilineal clause, and this may be the forerunner of the adoption of this change within the Conservative movement in the next few years.)
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Before discussing how a person converts to Judaism, shouldn't we first discuss what makes a person a Jew?
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What is the Jewish attitude toward conversion?


