Donkey of Asiatic wild ass or onager, "Equus hemionus", and three subspecies of the kiang, "Equus kiang", of the Himalayan upland. A male donkey (jack) can be crossed with a female horse to produce a mule. A male horse can be crossed with a female donkey to produce a hinny. Horse-donkey hybrids are almost always sterile because horses have 64 chromosomes whereas donkeys have 62, producing offspring with 63 chromosomes. Mules are much more common than hinnies. This is believed to be caused by two factors, the first being proven in cat hybrids, that when the chromosome count of the male
Who is a Jew? horse and a donkey, and in both unions the offspring are judged matrilineally. Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother. However Leviticus 24:11, Ezra 9-10, and Nehemiah 13 seem to indicate that matrilineal descent was recognized and patrilineal descent was rejected in Biblical times as well. All Jewish religious movements agree that a person may be a Jew either by birth or through conversion. According to "halakha," a Jew by birth must be born to a Jewish mother. "Halakha" states