Following the consensus of Jewish tradition, we recognize as a Jew anyone who is born of a Jewish mother or who is a convert to Judaism.

We also recognize as a Jew anyone who is born of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother if that person has undertaken public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people.

In 1968 the Reconstructionist movement became the first stream of Judaism to accept the validity of patrilineal descent for determining Jewish identity. In a resolution adopted that year by the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Fellowships, it was decided that children born to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers would be considered Jews if their parents "committed themselves to rear their children as Jews, by providing circumcision for boys, Jewish education for boys and girls, and if the children fulfill the requirements of bar and bat mitzvah or confirmation."

In 1983 the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) of the Reform movement followed the precedent of the Reconstructionists, affirming the Jewish status of offspring of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother if the status is "established through appropriate and timely public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people."

The CCAR ruling gives examples of the sort of "public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people" it has in mind, focusing especially on events in childhood and adolescence: "mitzvot leading toward a positive and exclusive Jewish identity will include entry into the covenant [i.e., circumcision], acquisition of a Hebrew name, Torah study, bar/bat mitzvah, and Kabbalat Torah (Confirmation)." The parallel examples suggest that the CCAR was merely elaborating on the earlier decision of the Reconstructionists.

The Reform rabbis go beyond the Reconstructionist ruling in one important respect: they explicitly allow for cases when an adult born of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother reclaims his or her Jewish inheritance: "For those beyond childhood claiming Jewish identity, other public acts or declarations may be added or substituted after consultation with their rabbi."

We in the Messianic Jewish movement can learn much from the way these decisions are formulated. In the Reconstructionist and Reform movements, patrilineal descent is not sufficient in itself to establish Jewish identity. Such descent must be accompanied by public and formal acts of commitment to the Jewish faith and the Jewish people if it is to confer upon a person the privileges and obligations of Jewish status.