What Does It Mean To Be Part Of Am Yisrael?

Ever since the beginning of the semester, we have been asking ourselves the question "What does it mean to be part of Am Yisrael (a.k.a. the Jewish people)?"  What do you have to do in order to be a part of the Jewish people?  According to ancient Jewish law, if your mother is Jewish, then you are considered Jewish.  According to modern Reform Judaism, if you define yourself as Jewish, then that is good enough.  In my opinion, the minimum requirement for being Jewish falls somewhere in the middle of those two.  You have to put a little bit of effort into being a Jew.  You have to take part in the religion of Judaism.  To me, you at the very least should go to High Holiday services, although you should also do a bit more than that.  Judaism is not just an issue of how you define yourself to me.  I believe that Judaism is more about how you take your definition of yourself and put it into action.