Reply To: Going off the Derech

The main isssue brought up by MorahRach shows that the man’s questions were never answered. This is something that could have happened within any community. That should be the focus, and perhaps every community should self examine how they deal with this issue. As far as whether or not someone is really a Jew, it is a halachic decision based on whether or not you were born of a Jewish mother, like aries says. Period. Unfortunately for that man, he may really know that. But the rejection from his community just compounds the underlying problem, that he couldn’t find reasons to stay a practicing Jew. That’s the real issue. Calling him a non-Jew is just a terrible, misinformed, hurtful response to his going OTD. And I’ll tell you the truth, I think there may be other groups of people or individuals who could be just as hurtful…