If my mom is mixed with Black, White, and Indian and my dad is full-blooded Puerto Rican what race am I?

Halachicly, Judaism defines someone as Jewish if their MOTHER (matrilineal descent) is Jewish or if they have a halachicly valid conversion. Reform Judaism extends this definition a bit to include patrilineal descent to a limited extent- in other words, they only accept patrilineal descent combined with living a Jewish life and identification with the Jewish community (by reform definitions, not Orthodox. Thus the individual should observe life cycle events, be a member of community and such though there is no requirement for kashrut, tzitzit, tefillin etc).

Since I am Orthodox, and this is an Orthodox blog, I am going to put aside the Rreform recognition of patrilineal descent and just state that it is not accepted by Orthodox and leave it there (and if I have misstated it in anyway, I will welcome clarification from Reform readers and fix what I have stated. I do not pretend to be an expert on Reform or Conservative Judaism). So, within Orthodox Judaism we have two definitions of a Jew- the one with a Jewish mother and the convert.

Where do we learn this from? Matrilineal descent is learnt from the Torah and we see it being explictly applied in the Tanakh. We learn it from the Torah in Devarim (Deuterenomy) Chapter 7 .

You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son.?.? : 4. For he will turn away your son from following Me, and they will worship the gods of others, and the wrath of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.?.? : Now, verse 3 explictly states that neither Jewish men or women can marry non-Jews. However, in verse 4 there is a concernt hat the husband of the Jewish woman will entice the children into leaving Judaism, but there is no reciprical concern that the wife of a Jewish man will entice the children out of Judaism- why not?

The children are not Jewish. Rashi addresses this here in his commentary on the Torah and it is discussed in the Talmud in masechta Kiddushin daf 68b. Where do we learn this from in the Tanakh?

In Sefer Ezra (the Book of Ezra) in Ketuvim, we read the following in chapter 10 (see the chapter further for details): 3. And now, let us make a covenant with our God to cast out all the wives and their offspring, by the counsel of the Lord and those who hasten to perform the commandment of our God, and according to the Law it shall be done. AND 10.

And Ezra the priest arose and said to them, “You have dealt treacherously, and you have taken in foreign wives to add to Israel’s guilt.?. 11. And now, confess to the Lord, the God of your forefathers, and do His will, and separate from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”?.

12. Then the entire congregation replied and said in a loud voice: “Yes! We must do as you say!

AND 16. The people of the exile did so. Ezra the priest and certain men, heads of the fathers’ houses after the house of their fathers, separated themselves, all of them known by name, and they convened on the first day of the tenth month to investigate the matter.?.

17. And they completed everything concerning the men who had brought in foreign women, until the first day of the first month. Now, we read that the men put the wives AND their children from those wives aside.

The wives it can be easily understood that they were not Jewish- after all, it was only the non-Jewish women they were required to seperate from. Teh children are not explicitly stated. So why would the men seperate from them?

If they were Jewish, they would be obligated to educate them as jews, something that would be difficult to impossible if the children were put aside! The answer to that, is that these children were not Jewish and thus there was no obligation to educate them, or to bring them up as, Jews!

It is not made up; gentiles (and some Jews) just don't know where to look. You are correct in saying that Tribal affiliation goes through the father. If a Jewish woman marries a a Cohen her male child is a cohen, is she marries a Levite, her male child will be a Levite, but ALL of her children, sons and daughters are Jews through her.

A Jewish male who marries a non-Jewish woman (who has not converted) will have children that are outside of the covenant. The importance of marrying a woman that is part of the covenant, born or converted, is stressed in the following passages and supported even further in nevi'im (writings of the prophets): Genesis 22: 1-4 Genesis 28: 1-9.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.