[jjotto]

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/45132/jewish/What-Makes-a-Jew-Jewish.htm

...The Torah itself proclaims (Leviticus 16:16) that G-d “dwells amongst them in the midst of their impurities” — that His relationship with His people remains unaffected regardless of their behavior. In the words of the Talmud (Sanhedrin 44a), “A Jew, although he has transgressed, is a Jew.”

According to Torah law, a person’s Jewishness is not a matter of life-style or self-perception: one may be totally unaware of one’s Jewishness and still be a Jew, or one may consider himself Jewish and observe all the precepts of the Torah and still not be a Jew.

In other words, it is the relationship between the Jew and his Creator that defines his Jewishness — not his acknowledgment of this relationship or his actualization of it in his daily life. It is not the observance of Torah’s mitzvot (Divine “commandments”) that makes him a Jew, but the commitment that the mitzvot represent...

[SJackson]

Well, yes, though a bit off topic and I don't like to comment on religious issues. But your link correctly goes into the issue of transgressions. And I'm tempted to disagree with the unaware concept, but then there's Hillel's convert on one leg, it's all commentary. Regarding it is the relationship between the Jew and his Creator that defines his Jewishness — not his acknowledgment of this relationship or his actualization of it in his daily life, actualization I get. There are obviously unmentioned qualifications to be a Jew, the idea that one needs not acknowledge ones Jewishness, ie prayer, doesn't work for me.