Israel Still Pondering “Who is a Jew?”
Israel Still Pondering “Who is a Jew?”
Israeli authorities are wrestling again with the “Jewishness” of immigrants under the Law of Return, while a group of new immigrant soldiers are asking to use the New Testament instead of just the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, during their induction as IDF soldiers.
Attorney General Eliyakim Rubinstein has reinterpreted the Law of Return that says children and grandchildren of Jews are eligible for new immigrant status. He ruled that children of converts to Judaism are not eligible for immigrant rights unless the children themselves convert as well, or are born after the parents convert.
This interpretation of the law has outraged MK Roman Bronfman of the Democratic Choice party. “This is a decision that is entirely about pleasing the new government. Even before the Shas ministers are on their seats, their policies are going into effect. These are decrees that the new immigrants won’t be able to abide,” he said.
Rubinstein’s ruling was made in answer to a request for a clarification from the Interior Ministry more than a year ago. It concerned the case of a single gentile converting and bringing an entire family to Israel – a scenario fitting many Russian immigrants, foreign workers and Falash Mora [Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity for economic reasons].
In the Interior Ministry, this is referred to as “ger gorer,” meaning “convert convoys.” In the 1990s, the numbers of immigrants entering Israel who were not Jewish but getting rights of citizens under the Law of Return rose to tens of thousands.
A spokesman for the Justice Ministry, speaking in Rubinstein’s name, said “before the new interpretation is implemented, temporary solutions should be found for those who have already been declared eligible for new immigrant status because of family relationship to converts, but have yet to get their rights. Humanitarian solutions also have to be found for cases where the ruling could harm families.”
Meanwhile, the IDF’s chief education officer, Brig. Gen. Elazar Stern, told the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee on Monday that 92 out of 436 new immigrant soldiers inducted in January asked to be swore in using the New Testament, although most were Jewish. “Only a very small number are real Christians,” he told the committee, saying the soldiers were angered by their treatment in the country and were requesting the New Testament in an expression of protest.
The committee had convened to discuss denigrating remarks Stern was alleged to have made about non-Jewish soldiers being inferior to Jews. He denied making the remarks, but admitted that he said soldiers with identity problems have motivation problems, and non-Jewish soldiers have identity problems, most likely as a result of their minority status.
Outgoing Absorption Minister Yuli Tamir suggested that instead of using a Bible, soldiers be allowed to swear on the Declaration of Independence, which guarantees equal rights for all citizens, Jewish or not.
Used with Permission from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.