 Although a minority of modern Karaites believe that Jewish identity requires that both parents be Jewish, and not only the father.They argue that only patrilineal descent can transmit Jewish identity on the grounds that all descent in the Torah went according to the male line.The question of what determines Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when, in the 1950s, David Ben-Gurion requested opinions on "mihu Yehudi" ("Who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions.