If Netanyahu’s new government really does alter Israel’s magnificent Law of Return, it would be both a symbolic tragedy and a crazy blow to how many Jews around the world relate to Israel
By Yizhar Hess, HAARETZ
Israel’s Law of Return is the expression of a deep-rooted sense of historical responsibility and strategic vision for a small people, a third of whom were murdered over the last centuryCredit: Moti Milrod
If Israel had a constitution, the Law of Return would certainly be one of its first articles. Celebratory. Magnificent. The cornerstone of the national home for a people that was scattered among the nations of the world and which now has a state of its own. The Law of Return is the reason we are here. Conceived in the early days of Israeli legislation and voted on in 1950 by the Knesset on the 20th of Tammuz 5709, the Hebrew anniversary of Herzl’s death. The law was adopted unanimously; not a single MK dared to vote against it.
Recently, some have tried to refute the myth according to which the Law of Return is the mirror image of the Nuremberg Laws, but even they will admit that it gained traction for good reason. We all have secret aspirations for poetic justice, and the symbolism here is striking. Anyone Jewish enough to be sent to Auschwitz would know that the State of Israel is their home and that its doors will always be open to them.
The law’s so-called “grandchild clause,” which states that anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is entitled to immigrate to Israel, was only added in 1970. Although far-right lawmakers Bezalel Smotrich and Avi Maoz are losing sleep over it, it was almost a mere technical act. In practice, grandchildren had been included in the law from the very beginning. Why would anyone think otherwise?
How many of those immigrating to Israel from Europe after the Shoah, how many Holocaust survivors, members of the remnant that immigrated to Israel during the 1950s, were not Jewish according to halakha? Thousands? Tens of thousands? No one dared to ask. Even the Chief Rabbinate at the time turned a blind eye. Those survivors, branded by the flames of the Shoah, made aliyah and naturally blended into the Jewish people. It’s that simple.
Since the very dawn of Zionism, and certainly from the second aliyah onwards, it was clear to many of the movement’s leaders and the heads of the Jewish Yishuv that there is an understandable, legitimate and clearly distinct difference between the religious and national definitions of a Jew.
The Jewish people has a broader definition than the narrow halakhic designation of “who is a Jew.” Not because the halakhic definition is improper or irrelevant for the people who live according to it, but rather because the majority of the Jewish people in the modern era do not live a halakhically based life. Had the Zionist movement adhered only to the Orthodox-halakhic interpretation of Jewishness, it is quite possible that even some of the speakers at the First Zionist Congress in Basel would have been expelled. Are we really that crazy?
For generations, the Law of Return has defined the boundaries of the Jewish people as a collective group. Those “eligible to make aliyah” according to the Law of Return – the terminology we use at the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government – are not merely potential candidates for aliyah, but desirable, even sought after, candidates in every program related to Israel and the strengthening of Jewish identity such as Birthright, Masa, Naaleh and Jewish summer camps throughout the former Soviet Union.
The State of Israel and the Jewish people have, collectively, invested billions in cultivating this important population, even if it includes people who are not halakhically Jewish, out of a deep-rooted sense of historical responsibility and far-reaching strategic vision. The Jewish people is not large enough to exclude its grandchildren.
And if we have already mentioned a project such as Birthright – the most successful educational project in the Jewish world today – it is important to note that, during the 22 years of its existence, the program has brought hundreds of thousands of Jewish students aged 18-32 from around the world to visit Israel. Not all of these were Jewish, but all were eligible to make aliyah according to the Law of Return. Many of them are grandchildren of Jews.
Moreover, this intensive, formative experience, about which numerous studies have been conducted, has successfully led to many of them forming a previously non-existent Jewish identity. Apathy has been replaced by awareness, identity and a desire to maintain a connection with the Jewish collective and the State of Israel. Ask yourself, are these the people we now want to usher out the door?
Should the Israeli government currently being formed decide to amend the Law of Return, it would undoubtedly destroy the collective framework that has enabled many Jews worldwide, even if they didn’t make aliyah and never will, to feel that it also belongs to them.
Not a single word of the Law of Return should be altered. Firstly, because it fulfills its purpose in keeping such a small people, a third of which has been destroyed over the last hundred years; and secondly, because the law has also transcended its practical relevance. It is a symbol.
Like the flag, the anthem and the Declaration of Independence – the Law of Return is a lighthouse sending a beacon from the shore of the Jewish people’s safe haven. In the name of Zionism, in the name of Jewish peoplehood – get your hands off the Law of Return.
Dr. Yizhar Hess is the vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization
@Ted Belman
It already exists in Israel and the founder of the organization is an Orthodox rabbi Seth Farber:
LINDA-
When noting that males feel like females, you could also add thay males who are feelingn”strange”. become subject to”progressive” brainwashing , often beginning in primary school
It could be no more than a feeling of inadequacy, or a lack of
self-esteem-confidence that puzzles the poor kid, perhaps autism, mental confusion. etc.
@Liz44
I agree that conversion should be easier. The orthodox wouldn’t accept such a convert as Jewish and would not marry them. My concern is that all people who emigrated under the law of return should be able to convert without the stringency the orthodox requires so that their children would be considered as Jewish by all others. In the long run it is better for Israel to fix this problem.
@Liz Do you want to emigrate to Israel or do you need to? Every country has turned Jewish refugees away. Israel can’t. That’s the point. I gather you are not Jewish. Do you want to be? Go for it. You can be Jewish anywhere. ThoughI don’t intend to ever leave the island of Manhattan where I have lived my entire life if I can help it, I can’t escape being obviously Jewish. Total strangers have identified and accosted me. though I am secular and assimilated That’s the point.
@Reader Is there a regime anywhere today that singles out, much less persecutes somebody just for having one Jewish grandparent? If anybody makes such a claim, wouldn’t it make more sense to evaluate such claims on a case by case basis?
I can agree with comments made thus far, but in my opinion, the law of return should be interpreted and implemented in the broadest context possible. I understand rabbinic and government rules, but there are somethings we just can’t figure out and have to leave up to Hashem. Anyone claiming to be Jew should be allowed to enter Israel and then if they fail to live up to the standard, they can be expelled. That is what other laws are for to deal with the criminal element. When messiah comes, he will place people in their tribe and I’m sure all the fake Jews who will not follow torah—- messiah will deal with them also.
My question is this, “If “progressives” accept a biological male as a female, because he feels like a female, why wouldn’t this absurdity also apply to the Law of Return?” If a Muslim says he feels like a Jew, why wouldn’t he have to be accepted as a Jew in Israel? Taqiyyah (lying in the service of Islam) is a weapon that could easily be used for population jihad against Israel. Feelings are not facts, and lies are not truths. It is something to remember when debating who is a Jew, as it relates to the Law of Return, and Israel’s contiunued existence as a Jewish state.
This organization is involved in Jewish advocacy issues:
The author forgot to mention that anyone who would restrict the Law of Return or aliyah could be properly called a murderer if the Jewish history enters another of its murderous cycles which seems to be starting right now.
Many Ukrainian Jews were forced recently to leave for Germany instead of Israel because there wasn’t enough time for them to “complete the aliyah process”.
The grandparent definition must be retained in the Law of Return. Although descendants of one Jewish grandparent – such as myself – may not be halachically Jewish, all those I know in a similar situation are staunch Zionists and would be very happy to help build Zion in the Land given to the Jews by G-d. It would be a good idea to make the conversion process simpler, if such grandchildren show a wish to convert. It could even be made a condition that the grandchild who comes to Israel must at least be willing to consider conversion, if such a law could be accepted. There is such huge antisemitism now in the West that it is becoming extremely difficult for people to lead authentically Jewish lives here, and with DNA testing now available, any future antisemitic authorities would have the means to identify those of us with at least some Jewish DNA, and base persecution on that fact. And clearly, if these grandchildren were to make aliyah, and then married a Jewish person, they would have to convert anyway, so the problem would cease to exist after one or two generations.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364943
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https://www.jewishboston.com/read/ask-a-rabbi-my-great-grandmother-was-jewish-am-i-jewish-too/