Conclusion: Same-Sex Parenthood and the Making of Jewish Continuity

Abstract

This concluding chapter knits the empirical findings together to discuss what long-term implications the formation of same-sex parenthood might have in Israel. Most importantly, same-sex couples’ turn to medical technologies (sperm donation and surrogacy), legal technologies (second-parent adoption and parenthood orders), and religious technologies (conversion processes and circumcision) has entered existing shifts and unveiled the conflicting ontologies in Israeli family law. This particular situation creates ambiguities not only for same-sex couples, but also for their offspring who face a highly fragmented definition of siblingship. What pedigrees the children of same-sex couples will draw one day, and what kind of national, ethical, or religious belonging they will claim, remain open questions. A look back in history, however, shows that making sense of and struggling over the reproduction of the Jewish collective constitutes part of Jewish tradition. And exactly this tradition also provides means to ingest same-sex couples and their children.