The True Jewish State Issue Is Jewish Right To Citizenship

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
23 September '10

Does a Jew from Boston, Buenos Aires or Bombay have the right to step off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport and become an Israeli citizen simply because he is a Jew?

He does today, under the Law of Return.

When an Israeli Arab says Israel should be a "state of all its citizens" rather than a "Jewish state", what he is really saying if that he wants the Law of Return to be repealed.

Sure, some Jews might be allowed in on humanitarian grounds, but unless there were some serious pogroms in Pittsburgh, aliyah from North America would be a thing of the past under the "state of all its citizens" scheme.

The Israeli Arab leadership doesn't conceal this. It has been written up working papers prepared by various Israeli Arab bodies. Many of which, curiously, receive funding from the very same American Jews whose option to become an Israeli citizen they wish to deny.

Again. The dispute over "Jewish state" versus "state of all its citizens" isn't over state symbols, holidays, or even funding for religious institutions.

It's over the Law of Return.

A law that does indeed express the very essence of the Jewish state reborn after generations of exile.

"The Arab Israeli population, after many years, is going to be a challenge demographically to the Jewish State of Israel" predicted Jordan's King Abdullah in an interview with Israel Television Channel 1 last 28 August.

Creating the circumstances that the Law of Return is somehow repealed is part of the strategy to make that challenge possible.

The refusal of the PA leadership to include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as part of the "package" isn't a matter of rhetoric. I reflects their hope that one day King Abdullah's prediction will come true.

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Attacks on conversion bill are misleading

Fresnozionism.org
18 July '10

The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) — the largest Jewish denomination the US — sprung into action recently to protect us from a “dangerous threat”:

Sunday, July 12th, abruptly and with no warning, a committee vote was held on the bill sponsored by Member of the Knesset David Rotem that poses a dangerous threat to the rights of Conservative, Reform, and all non-Orthodox Jews, who comprise the overwhelming majority of world Jewry…

For 2,000 years, Judaism has treated Jews-by-choice (converts) the same as Jews-by-birth. This treatment is rooted in the Talmudic teaching that “as soon as a convert emerges from the mikvah (ritual bath) she or he is Jewish for all purposes.” (Yevamot 47b).

Since its founding 62 years ago, the State of Israel, through the Law of Return, has welcomed Jews from around the world as citizens in the world’s only Jewish state.

This legislation would delegitimize all non-Orthodox conversions. It would also preclude conferring citizenship under the Law of Return to Jews who did not qualify for such status on a prior visit (ie. converts).
[my italics]

The URJ is calling for its members to write to the Prime Minister and to apply every kind of pressure available to US Jews to prevent the passage of this bill. Rabbis will be speaking to their congregations from the pulpit, mass emails have been sent to Reform Jews, etc. Recently, the president of the largest congregation in our city said to me that “I’ve always supported Israel [he has], but I’m going to fight on this.”

A change to the criteria used by the State of Israel to determine ‘who is a Jew’ for the purposes of the Law of Return would indeed be big news. The Orthodox parties have tried in the past to change the law to disallow non-Orthodox converts from receiving citizenship, but have always been beaten back.

But in fact the bill doesn’t do anything like that.

Its main purpose is to decentralize the conversion process in Israel, in order to solve the problem of 320,000 Russian immigrants who would like to convert to Judaism but have been unable to, because of bureaucratic problems and ultra-Orthodox obstructionism. It makes it possible for local rabbis to perform conversions, and makes it harder for ultra-Orthodox ones to annul them.

This is a huge issue, and the bill tries to fix it without changing the traditional religious-secular status quo.

(Read full post)

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The True Jewish State Issue – Jewish Right To Citizenship

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
15 July '10

Does a Jew from Boston, Buenos Aires or Bombay have the right to step off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport and become an Israeli citizen simply because he is a Jew?

He does today, under the Law of Return.

When an Israeli Arab says Israel should be a “state of all its citizens” rather than a “Jewish state”, what he is really saying if that he wants the Law of Return to be repealed.

Sure, some Jews might be allowed in on humanitarian grounds, but unless there were some serious pogroms in Pittsburgh, aliyah from North America would be a thing of the past under the “state of all its citizens” scheme.

The Israeli Arab leadership doesn’t conceal this. It has been written up working papers prepared by various Israeli Arab bodies. Many of which, curiously, receive funding from the very same American Jews whose option to become an Israeli citizen they wish to deny.

Again. The dispute over “Jewish state” versus “state of all its citizens” isn’t over state symbols, holidays, or even funding for religious institutions.

It’s over the Law of Return.

A law that does indeed express the very essence of the Jewish state reborn after generations of exile.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
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