After Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal yesterday representing Israel in the Olympics, his mother made a dramatic statement that caused a bit of a ruckus.

Artem's mother announced that while Artem is being celebrated as a national hero, he would not be able to get married in Israel as he is not Jewish. She publicized that Artem's father is Jewish but she, his mother, is not. Because Artem is not Jewish, he cannot get married in Israel as there is no arrangement for civil marriage here. He and his girlfriend would need to travel abroad to get married.

This caused a bit of a buzz. A national hero, someone has contributed so much to Israel and national pride but we won't consider him Jewish?

The correct answer, I think, is yes, we won't consider him Jewish. Being a good person, bringing in a gold medal, serving in the army is not a form of conversion. If he is not Jewish,he is not Jewish. We don't consider people Jewish just because they did good things for Israel. Maybe it can give special consideration in streamlining the process and not being overly burdensome, but it does not give us the right to just say ok, we'll consider you Jewish.

However, someone like this should be encouraged to convert and the process should not be made difficult for him. His comes form a long line of Jews on his father's side. He is zera yisrael. And if he does not want to convert, he does not need to. Israel should offer some form of civil marriage. Israel has many non-Jewish and non-Muslim citizens, and they need to be able to function and carry on normal lifecycle events and daily activities. Civil marriage could be restricted to non-Jews, if people are worried about what it might cause to the Jewish community and the institution of halachic marriage and potential mamzerus, but these thousands of Israeli citizens need their basic rights to be met.