Can you be 1/2 Jewish?

Actually, Jewish-ness <?> is passed from the mother. i’m being serious here.

also, these days, “being Jewish” is more a socio-cultural thing than a religious thing for many Jewish people.

didn’t want to drop a hard J there.

Jewish is an ancestry as well as a religion. People identify with the culture as much as the religion, so in that aspect, he is identifying with the cultural ancestry.

The old saying,

From Jewish womb, comes Jewish doom.

If your mother is Jewish, you are, no matter who the father is, If your mother is not Jewish, you are not, no matter who the father is.

Judaism is an ethnicity as well as a religion and can be identified from DNA samples thanks to certain marker genes kept concentrated by the tendency for Jews to marry other Jews. Often, being Jewish transcends national origin simply because in so many countries anti-semitism has isolated those who are practicing Jews from the rest of the population. So yes, he could be half Jewish, just as someone else could be half-Irish.

As to his father’s parents being from Turkey, please understand that there are Jews all over the world. Most of the Turkish Jews got there from Spain in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain (well, they could convert to Christianity but that wasn’t always the wisest choice as shown by the Inquisition). The Sephardic Jews ( the ones expelled) were welcomed by the Ottoman Empire, aka today as Turkey. There are only fewer than 30,000 Jews in Turkey today, but they do exist.

And finally, yes, you are considered fully Jewish if your mother is Jewish, but not if only your father is Jewish. However, if you are raised as an observant Jew you are generally accepted as a Jew. My cousin is Jewish in that sense. His father was Jewish, his mother was not, but he chose to attend synagogue and undergo a Bar Mitzvah so he is considered Jewish. Of course, he isn’t a member of an orthodox temple, but still he is considered Jewish by his rabbi.

We consider my children 1/2 Jewish. Their father is a non-observant Jew, and I am a non-observant Christian (by birth), who is now an agnostic. We have not raised them in any one religion, but they are exposed to both Christian and Jewish traditions through holiday celebrations and learning about all religions in general.

A couple of factors here:

1) there’s ethnic Jewishness (your genetic background) and cultural Jewishness (how much you observe or don’t observe the religion currently and/or in your childhood).

2) Officially Jewishness is inherited from the mother; I have the same background as your friend (Jewish dad, non-Jewish mom) and I would not be considered Jewish (ethnically I am half Jewish since my dad was 100%, but in religious terms I’m not officially Jewish at all—espeicially since we just had an atheist household when I was growing up).

The Reform movement accepts patrilineal decent—that is, they will consider you Jewish if only your father is Jewish. I am not too familiar with the Conservative movement’s policies, but an Orthodox congregation will not consider you to be Jewish in that case, even if you are observant. (You could decide to convert, though.)

being jewish isnt only a religion butalso a heritage. so you dont have to be completly jewish.
my dad is catholic but his mother was jewish so he still is jewish but just fully

@Darwin, The latter half of your statement depends entirely on which denomination of Judaism you are surrounded by. In most of the more religious/traditional (i.e. Chasidic, Orthodox, and even most Conservative) sects and communities, your friend would not be considered Jewish unless he underwent a proper conversion, including circumcision.

@answerjill, I have never come across a Conservative community or Rabbi that/who would accept patrilineal decent. The Conservative movement as a whole does not.

You can indeed be half-Jewish, for the reasons stated above: if your dad is Jewish and your mother is not (because being Jewish by birth comes solely from the mother except for in some of the newer, less religious sects such as reconstructionist Judaism).

@omfgTALIjustIMDu – As I said in my post, my cousin (not my friend) is NOT in an orthodox temple, and for good reason. I said his rabbi accepts him as Jewish, not all rabbis.

And I am told he did have a bris – his father’s parents insisted on it. I have never seen the evidence, however, but I am sure his wives could attest to the physical aspects.

@Darwin, My apologies for the relationship mistake. I was pretty sure you knew what you were talking about, I just wanted to clarify for the asker and other people who might have been reading and not understood.