Thinktank warns that immigration is now cutting into the Jewish majority in Israel, but adds reforms could reverse this trend.
By David Rosenberg, INN 15.1.23
A majority of new immigrants to Israel are non-Jews, according to a new report, cutting into the country’s Jewish majority.
The report was produced by the Center for Immigration Policy, and draws on data collected by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
Based on the CBS statistics, the report found that in 2022, a total of 77,000 people immigrated to Israel, including 71,000 people who made Aliyah, entering the country and receiving citizenship under the Law of Return.
Passed in 1950, the Law of Return offers a Right of Return and automatic citizenship to any member of a recognized Diaspora Jewish community.
In 1970, the law was expanded with the so-called “grandchild clause,” enabling the children of Jews, grandchildren of Jews, and spouses of Jews to also claim citizenship under the Law of Return.
While the law was considered a key to Israel’s demographic future during the 1950s and 1960s – and again in the 1990s following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – the “grandchild clause” has resulted in an expansion of non-Jewish immigration.
According to the CIP report, Israel’s Jewish majority fell in 2022 by 0.3 points as a result of non-Jewish immigration, from 73.9% a year earlier to 73.6%.
Israel’s Jewish majority has declined by roughly 10% over the past 30 years, the report claimed, falling by an average of one-third of a point per year.
Much of that decline is due to rising rates of non-Jewish immigration, CIP said, noting that in 2022, an absolute majority of new immigrants to Israel were non-Jews.
Of the 77,000 total immigrants who gained legal status in Israel last year, nearly 60% were not Jewish. Among the 71,000 who made Aliyah, receiving citizenship under the Law of Return, 55% of new immigrants were non-Jews, compared to just 32,000, or 45% of new immigrants who were Jews.
The authors of the report noted that plans currently under consideration in the new government to nullify the 1970 amendment could reduce non-Jewish immigration by 85%.
“It is unbelievable that the rise in new Olim leads such a decline in the Jewish majority,” said Attorney Dr. Yona Cherki, from the Israeli Immigration Policy Center.
“This is a demographic deficit that will harm the Jewish identity and status of the country. The upshot of the CBS data is that the amendment to the section ‘Rights of family members’ (known as the ‘grandson clause’) in the Law of Return may reduce non-Jewish immigration to Israel by 85%.”
Frank Adam makes a very good point. Get them there they will slowly learn. Torah cycles run yearly or if you follow the more ancient one 3 1/2 years. Either way- 7 years of study immersed in a Jewish society will slowly bring change. Law breakers and criminal’s, they are all easy to deal with if you have the stomach for it.
@ketzel2
I agree with you completely, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
In addition:
Have they considered that in addition to reducing the non-Jewish immigration to Israel they will reduce the Jewish aliyah of the Jews who are married to or are parents or grandparents of these non-Jews, thus forcing them to remain in the increasingly antisemitic and dangerous Diaspora?
In addition, is it possible that a large proportion of these “immigrants” are recorded as non-Jews simply because they were simply unable to obtain the required “proofs of Judaism” and not because they are not really Jewish?
Ketzel and Liz have constructive as well as valid points.
As in French – the appetite comes with eating – and even in Halacha start with the simple easy requirements. Do not expect people who have to earn a living to turn immediately into Hassidim: the annual cycle of the year, some history as well as Bible, Sababath and the parashot , kashrut meat and dairy separaton, further reading list. Time for some to remember the talmudical injunction that to leave the Land of Israel is reeason for divorce and to go easy on the rest. It is living in Israel that makes so much of the Bible clear and pertinent and rouses curiosity to study – even for Diaspora lax Jews.
@JohnF And will they bite the hand that feeds them when they get there with their anti-Zionist politics intact is my question? Does Israel need any more pro-Arab Jewish voters who fantasize that they are fighting racism and colonialism as they kick the Jewish state in the teeth?
A very complex issue. But to simplify it a bit: who is more dangerous, a nice secular person with some Jewish ancestry who is Zionist enough to want to live in Israel, or an Arab citizen of Israel who belongs to one of those awful Arab parties? It seems to me that, although any subject is worth discussing, this subject deflects from the real issue. Not one of the people who aren’t Jewish enough, will ever have the slightest inclination to aim their car at Jewish soldiers.
@Sebastien The article you cite describes a population of Jews who are being educated by the Friedmans and others of the New York Times and who will only recognise the danger they are in as the rise of Islamic/leftist-liberal anti-Semitism continues to grow inexorably. Then they will recognise the opportunity they have to immigrate to the truly promised land
According to this argument: How many of the Holocaust victims were actually Jews?
The Reform and Conservative conversions are a joke compared to the Orthodox rabbinate conversions. How can you convert someone who will not observe the Mitzvot? If they converted to get married what will happen when they divorce? Are they making Aliyah because of the better Israeli economy? Are they ready for all the Jewish Halacha Laws to be implemented with the Beit HaMikdash? What about Shabbat?
@liz44 I’m secular myself, but this article addresses what concerns me.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/can-reform-and-conservative-judaism-support-for-zionism-be-revived/
.
As I’ve suggested before in regard to this problem, I think all grandchildren of Jews, as well as those Gentiles married to Jews, who want to make aliyah should either be required to convert to Judaism within a set period – say five years – or else be issued with a residence permit, but not full citizenship. Residents who are not citizens should not be able to vote in Israeli elections or hold responsible positions in the Israeli government. Along with this requirement, however, Israel should recognize conversions carried out under Reform and Conservative authorities. I don’t know whether the Orthodox rabbinate would go along with this relaxation of the laws of conversion, but for the sake of preserving the Jewish nature of Israel they would be well advised to do so.