Matrilinearity

This sweet article was posted on Jezebel the other day about "half-Jews". My first reaction was, "hey, something I actually give a shit about is on this site." The article cites The Jerusalem Post and talks about how in Israel there is a lot of debate about how one's "Jewishness" is defined. Apparently half of Israel thinks it only matters if one parent is a Jew, either the father or the mother, which goes against the age-old matrilineal (which, according to firefox, I am spelling wrong) qualification.

My thoughts:

I guess I'm technically a half-Jew, father's Jewish, Mother's not. But I've never identified as Half-Jewish, and would honestly agree that there isn't really such thing as a half Jew; I mean, what's the point? Either you're Jewish or you're not. And I'm Jewish. I guess it's kind of insulting to deny my mom's heritage - but she doesn't have much of one. I was raised completely Jewish. Why would I identify as half-Jewish? Why would anyone identify as half-Jewish?

There were a lot of comments by "half-Jews" who say they were denied admittance to Birthright trips, which is really sad, especially since I got to go. There was even a dude on my trip who was Korean and he was adopted by Jewish parents. I'm inclined to believe, then, that Birthright is disqualifying people on the basis of how "Jewish" they were raised, since both Sam and I had had Bar Mitzvahs and the like. Unfortunately, I think Birthright will still give preference to a full-blooded yid over a mischling, despite how "Jewish" or not the upbringing of the former's may have been.

The author of the article also told a story about how a fellow Jew once told her that "It's people like your father who are ruining the Jewish religion". This is fucking preposterous. It would only be a crime if the author's father did not raise her as a Jew. Would the person still pass that asinine judgment if the author's mother were a Jew but the author knew nothing about her religion or heritage or culture?