Founding mothers

Matrilineality in Judaism or matrilineal descent in Judaism is the tracing of Jewish descent through the maternal line. Virtually all Jewish communities have followed matrilineal descent from at least early Tannaitic (c. 10-70 CE) times to Modern times. The origins and date-of-origin of matrilineal descent in Judaism are uncertain. Orthodox Jews, who believe that matrilineality and matriarchy within Judaism are related to the metaphysical concept of the Jewish soul, maintain that matrilineal descent was always the practice but that it was formulated as an Oral Law of the Torah at the Receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai (c. 1310 BCE).Conservative Jewish Theologian Rabbi Louis Jacobs suggests that the marriage practices of the Jewish community were re-stated as a law of matrilineal descent in the early Tannaitic Period (c. 10-70 CE).

The Torah and the Jewish Oral Tradition emphasize the importance of the matriarchal lines of Israel. In Judaism, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Yocheved and Miriam are each considered to be a Principal Progenitor either of or in Israel. According to the Torah, the Nation of Israel descends directly from Isaac, child of Sarah and not directly from any of Abraham's seven other sons.

And God said, "But Sarah your wife will give birth to a son for you and you will call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

In the account given in the Torah, all of the twelve tribes of Israel descend from Isaac's son Jacob. Jacob married the nieces of Rebekah. Still, following the account of the Torah, the leaders in Israel often descend from Rachel or Leah. Another example is Jacob’s connection to Benjamin which had to do with his being the only known living child of his mother, Rachel:

And he [Jacob] said, "My son shall not go down with you, because his brother is dead, and he [Benjamin] is alone left [from his mother, Rachel], and should misfortune befall him on the way you are going, you will bring down my old age in sorrow to the grave."

Following the account of the Torah, Prophets and Writings, kingship in Israel descends directly from Peretz, the firstborn son that Tamar had with Judah and not from Judah's older son, Sheilah.

In the Five Books of Moses, there are two mentioned examples of Israelites who married apparently non-Hebrew women whose children were Israelite. Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, with whom he had one surviving son, Sheilah. In Egypt, Joseph married Asenath the daughter of Poti phera, priest of On. Joseph and Asenath had Menashe and Ephraim. According to the Torah, these examples predate Israel's nationhood and the Giving of the Law at Sinai by centuries, and matrilineal descent may have only been a requirement after the Law was given.

...
Wikipedia