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Can the child of two converts marry a Cohen? How does the situation differ if only the mother, or only the father, is a convert?

(I have read that "ideally" the child of two converts should not marry a Cohen, but what exactly does this mean?)

If such a marriage takes place, will the children retain Cohen status?

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Based on the Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer 7:21 the daughter of converts (and her daughter etc. until at least one of the parents has traditional Jewish ancestry) should not marry a priest. However, if she does and she was conceived after her parents' conversions, then they do not need to get divorced, implying a non-Biblical restriction on such a marriage, and the child (when the father is a kohen) is also a kohen.

The source of the restriction is the Talmud Kiddush 78b which states that although the halacha follows the view that the children of converts are permitted to a priest, after the destruction of the Second Temple the priests adopted an extra stringency and avoided marrying even the children of converts. This long standing tradition is the source for the halacha.

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  • but of course, it's nearly impossible for a kohen to know if any given Jewish woman EVER had a convert ANYWHERE in her geneological line. If by Mamzerim we say "once they're mixed, they're mixed" (i.e. if one slips into the Jewish community and marries a non-mamzer unnoticed, they're great-great-children can't retroactively be classified as mamzerim), all the more so we would take that approach here, where there is no actual prohibition involved.
    – user1095
    Feb 13, 2012 at 20:15
  • @Will As long as one of her great...grandparents is Jewish back to Avraham then she is 100% fine to marry in. The 'issur' is only on someone who comes from purely convert blood.
    – Double AA ♦
    Feb 13, 2012 at 20:39
  • @Double AA just wondering, suppose the child is conceived after the mother's conversion, but not the father's? (I also want to add that I am waiting to accept an answer that deals a bit with my sub-question, "How does the situation differ if only the mother, or only the father, is a convert?") Thanks.
    – SAH
    Feb 13, 2012 at 22:37
  • @SAH judaism.stackexchange.com/q/1348/759
    – Double AA ♦
    Feb 13, 2012 at 22:38
  • @user1095 you're misunderstanding the halacha. The restriction on further generations only applies if each generation continues to marry converts. Once they marry a born Jew, their child is unrestricted. This is quite easy to trace.
    – Desert Star
    Oct 30, 2020 at 16:13
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http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/468267/jewish/Kohen-Marriages.htm

Thus a child of parents who were both converts before they married is technically permitted to marry a kohen because horatah ve’ledatah bi-kedushah (she was conceived and born in sanctity as a Jew). But the kohanim took upon themselves an extra stringency and did not permit it.

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