Two new Olim taking an excited selfie upon landing in Israel. (photo credit: SHAHAR AZRAN)
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More than half of all immigrants to Israel in 2018 under the Law of Return were not Jewish figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics have shown.
According to the CBS, there were 30,300 immigrants who came to Israel under the Law of Return, of whom 12,600 were Jewish and 17,700 were not.
The Law of Return allows for any person who has one Jewish grandparent to emigrate to Israel and gain citizenship. Jewish law stipulates however that a person is Jewish only if their mother was Jewish.
According to the Jewish Agency, 17,000 immigrants came to Israel from Russia and the Ukraine in 2018, although the Jewish Agency’s numbers do not exactly correspond with the CBS figures and show 29,600 immigrants in total compared to the CBS’ 30,300.
There are approximately 400,000 Israelis, mostly from the former Soviet Union, who emigrated to Israel under the law of return but who are not Jewish, and this number is growing every year both due to natural growth and due to continued immigration.
According to a study in 2014 by the chief scientist of the Immigration and Absorption Ministry and senior lecturer in political studies at Bar-Ilan University Prof. Ze’ev Khanin, approximately half of the immigrants coming to Israel from the states of the former Soviet Union aged 30 and above are not Jewish, along with 75 percent of younger immigrants from that region.
The growing number of such citizens, Zionist Israelis who are integrated into society but who are not Jewish according to Jewish law, has raised concerns in Orthodox circles that Jewish intermarriage, or long term partnerships between Jews and non-Jews, will increase significantly in future generations.
One approach to solve the problem of Jewish intermarriage has been to push for a higher rate of conversion and to make conversion easier, especially for those descended from Jews for whom Jewish law provides certain leniencies.
An independent Orthodox system of rabbinical courts called Giyur K’halacha was established in 2015 to take on this challenge, with a view in particular for converting minors (with parental consent) for which Jewish law provides even greater leniencies.
Others, such as the Chief Rabbi David Lau have called for passing legislation so that only Jews according to Jewish law could gain access to citizenship through the Law of Return.
Rabbi Seth Farber, head of the ITIM religious services organization and a key figure behind the establishment of Giyur K’halacha, argued that increased conversion was the better answer.
“These people are part of the body of the Jewish people around the world, and the Jewish people have a responsibility to provide them with a homeland for historical reasons, this is part of the justification for state of Israel,” said Farber.
“Instead of trying to tamper with moral, historical, and political realities, we should spend time trying to encourage conversion and not eliminate it,” he added.
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