The Central Conference of American Rabbis resolves that a child of one Jewish parent, raised with Jewish identity acts, is Jewish; the decision halves the matrilineal rule of rabbinic law for the Reform movement and deepens its divide with Orthodoxy.
Tagged: Jewish Reform Judaism
The Event
- Date
- 1983 (exact)
- Era
- Contemporary; Standard periodization of Jewish history
- Location
- United States
- Traditions
- Judaism
- Streams
- Reform Judaism
How the Tradition Tells It
Patrilineal descent is the sharpest legal divide among the modern streams: a person Jewish by the Reform standard may not be Jewish by the Orthodox and Conservative standard, and the difference follows families into marriage and conversion.
Primary Sources
- CCAR Resolution on Patrilineal Descent (1983)
Secondary Sources
- Wertheimer, A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America (Basic, 1993)
- Sarna, American Judaism: A History (Yale, 2004)
Provenance: HIST-0133; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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