How DO you prove you are jewish/your grandparents are jewish?

[Magelet]

I was just thinking about this, reading some back threads. How on earth do you go about proving you are jewish, (or more pertinently, your grandparents were jewish for those of patrilinial descent.) I am planning on converting, but just considering, say for the law of return, or serving in idf. My grandparents were jewish, and both are deceased. If I needed to prove they were jewish, how on earth would I do so. I imagine when I convert, I'll make sure to get letters from the beit din, for any future need.

How on earth do you go about proving your deceased grandparents were jewish?

[tikva18]

Do you have their ketuba (marriage certificate) or were they buried in a jewish cemetary? Do you have a history from them where they talked about growing up Jewishly? Do you know their Hebrew names? and whose parents are they? your dad's or your mom's? it makes a difference. If they were your mom's parents then your mom is Jewish and so are you - no conversion necessary. If they were your dad's parents - then it's up to you to decide if being Jewish is something that you want.
Good luck!

[Magelet]

Its my dad's parents, and yes, being jewish is something that is important to me. I'll have to ask my dad these things. I think they were buried in a jewish cemetary... thanks.

[smeisnotapirate]

Just so you're aware (you may be already, and if so, sorry), the Reform movement is the ONLY Jewish movement that accepts Jewish ancestry from the paternal line. So unless you're planning on staying in a Reform synagogue for the rest of your Jewish life, it doesn't matter whether your father's family was Jewish or Buddhist. It's only your mother's family that matters, and if mom wasn't, then you aren't, and you must be converted.

Just so you know. Good luck on your research!

[elisheva]

Sometimes getting copies of birth certificates is also helpful though the ketubah or record of burial in a Jewish cemetery would be better.

[Magelet]

I know that for counting whether I'm Jewish, patrilinially, it doesn't matter with most jews. But for purposes of aliyah and mahal, it doesn't matter if it is patrilineal or matrilineal, which is what I'm interested in. (Though we may or may not make aliyah, we just started discussing it. but DP brought it up :: And I do plan to convert (working on it), but likely with a conservative rabbi, and I know there are some weirdnesses there about whether you count as jewish in israel right now.

[merpk]

Originally Posted by Magelet

I know that for counting whether I'm Jewish, patrilinially, it doesn't matter with most jews. But for purposes of aliyah and mahal, it doesn't matter if it is patrilineal or matrilineal, which is what I'm interested in. (Though we may or may not make aliyah, we just started discussing it. but DP brought it up :: And I do plan to convert (working on it), but likely with a conservative rabbi, and I know there are some weirdnesses there about whether you count as jewish in israel right now.

For purposes of aliyah, you have to provide some sort of documentation. We had to get a congregational rabbi whose shul we attended and whose school our children attended write a letter attesting that we were deeply involved in the Jewish community and were, to his knowledge, Jewish. My DH had a certificate from his bris, but it wasn't deemed to be necessary.



FWIW, I had to provide a separate letter for my children, because the Israeli government is not interested in Jewish law (which states that my biological children are automatically halakhically Jewish), and wasn't satisfied with the rabbi's letter attesting to *my* Jewishness. It wanted something attesting to my children's Jewishness as well, beyond the obviousness of halakha.




Most people have *something* of their grandparents or parents, their ketubah (Jewish marriage license), perhaps. My husband has his great-grandfather's passport with some of the information written in Yiddish. Even families with no living grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc., due to the Holocaust often have at least one "Jewish" thing ...

If you are a convert, then that's what you've got to provide, information about your conversion, with statements from the Beit Din or rabbis or facilitated your conversion.




If you're working on aliyah, there are folks whose job it is to answer these questions, at the JAFI and NbN. If you want phone numbers or links, let me know.






And if you get serious enough about it, I know enough converts who've made aliyah if you want to connect with/talk to someone whose been through it, & can hook you up with someone, if you like.





And good luck.