Not sure about that. I would not necessarily accept this one opinion anyway. An "apikoras" is much more serious an issue than this. It would take a bais din to figure it out.
Pretty much got there because, even if not Jewish, the Karaite oaths taken (coupled with an existant circumcision) would be sufficient for a gentile to have converted, so certainly good enough for an arguably “half-Jew.”
Also not necessarily true. Conversion is more complicated than merely having a bris and taking the oath. "Half Jew"? It's like being "half pregnant"; one is either a Jew or not.
Anyway, it is an interesting subject- and a long winded one. :)
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t disagree with you, I just think they have a defensible position.
“Half Jew” = half pregnant.
Sure. Hence, the quoatation marks in my post.
To summaraize a very, very long article, the Orthodox Rabbinate postion came about because, when you really grind the conversion process down to the essentials (note, not “best practive” but “essentials,”) they look to conversion of Ruth, which was: (1) accepting G-d as the one true god;(2) taking the Jewish people as ones own people; and for men (3) circumcision.
The “half Jew” (cough) issue helps because a patrlineal Jews is “of” the people even if not “in” the Jewish people, so its a smaller step, so to speak, so making the Jewish people “their people” is a matter of mindset.
It’s a little different in Israel, where you could drop off almost any group (say, Russians with a Jewish grandfather or Indians whose ancestors chos to be Jewish) and, within a generation, they will be propertly Jewish simply by the critical mass of Jews living there, through quiet and private conversion, if need be.
Re: “aprikoras”
(1) The haredi in old city Jerusalem consider the haredi down the street heretics (and vice versa)
(2) and they consider the Tel Aviv haredi heretics, who think the USA Jews are all heretics
(3) and they all consider the Reform and Conservative heretics,
Etc.
So it’s a small charge these days.
The Karaite Jews are odd (no candle lighting before Shabbos, etc), but they are religously serious Jews, with good intent, and have all pretty much made the aliyah.
This goes a very long way in my book, even when I disagree with them.