Editing Levite (section)

===Lineage===
Having a last name of Levi or a related term does not necessarily mean a person is a Levite, and many well-known Levites do not have such last names.<ref>Some examples of having the title HaLevi, but not in their last name are: [[Baruch Epstein]], [[Yisroel Belsky]], [[Abraham Fraenkel]], [[Shmuel Wosner]], [[Meir Abulafia]], [[Samuel ibn Naghrillah]], [[Yehuda Ashlag]], [[Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik]], [[Pinchas Horowitz]], [[Hillel Paritcher]], [[Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin|The Chozeh (seer) of Lublin]], [[Shmuel Schecter]], [[Joseph Weiler]], [[Yom-Tov Lipman Heller]], [[Abraham ibn Daud]], [[Salomon ibn Parhon]], [[Shlomo Wahrman]], [[Salomon Alkabetz]], [[Issachar Berend Lehmann]], [[Avraham Bromberg]], [[Max Letteris]], [[Joseph ibn Migash]], [[Yechezkel Landau]], [[Jacob Moelin]], [[Luis de Torres]], [[Chaim Herzog]],
[[Avraham Gombiner]]</ref>

Levitical status is passed down in families from father{{efn|The child of a Bat Levi [daughter of a Levi] has no Levi status.}} to child born from a Jewish mother, as part of a family's genealogical tradition. Tribal status of Levite is determined by [[patrilineal descent]], so a child whose biological father is a Levite (in cases of adoption or artificial insemination, status is determined by the genetic father), is also considered a Levite. Jewish status is determined by matrilineal descent, thus conferring levitical status onto children requires both biological parents to be Israelites and the biological father to be a Levite.

Accordingly, there is currently no branch of Judaism that regards levitical status as conferrable by matrilineal descent. It is either conferrable patrilineally with a Jewish mother, in the traditional manner, or it does not exist and is not conferred at all.