We're often asked, why don't we subscribe to the Orthodox notion that one is Jewish if and only if their mother is? We don't because such definition is incredibly limiting.

Take the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon. He's Jewish, right? Well, a few years ago an Israeli Orthodox newspaper published that Sharon is NOT a Jew, because his mother was not one.

Somewhat absurd, isn't it? But Sharon's mother, originally named Vera, changed her name to a clearly more Jewish Dora, when she, along with his father, Shmuel (no doubt there), emigrated to Palestine.

So it's quite possible that Ariel's mother was not ethnically Jewish. But does that automatically make her son not a Jew? For it is quite likely that she did convert to Judaism, and even if she didn't, Ariel himself was raised as a Jew and lived his life as a Jew.

Now, if his mother wasn't born Jewish, does that make Ariel less of a Jew, Orthodox readers? Yes, you say?

Then go ahead and start your own website.