High Court Rules: Is Judaism A Religion, Culture Or Nationality?

In a legal decision that touches on the very core of Jewish/Israeli identity, the country’s supreme legal authority ruled last week that a woman who converted to Christianity and immigrated to Germany could not regain her Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, even though two Orthodox rabbinical courts – in London and in Tel Aviv – had determined that she was Jewish.

Editorial: A path back to Judaism
Is Jewishness a religion, culture or nationality?
JERUSALEM POST
 
Is Jewishness a function of religion, culture or nationality? According to the High Court, it is all of them at once.

In a fascinating legal decision that touches on the very core of Jewish/Israeli identity, the country’s supreme legal authority ruled last week that a woman who converted to Christianity and immigrated to Germany could not regain her Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, even though two Orthodox rabbinical courts – in London and in Tel Aviv – had determined that she was Jewish.

However, in their precedent-making decision, the three justices – Neal Hendel, Elyakim Rubinstein and Hanan Meltzer – gave the woman the option of regaining citizenship if she could prove to the Interior Ministry her renewed commitment to the Jewish people.

Precisely how she would accomplish this “return” was left unclear, but it suggests a radically new conception of repatriation through personal transformation akin to the Jewish concept of tshuva – “repentance” and/or “return.”

H.Z., born in Israel in 1950 to parents who survived the Holocaust, married a Catholic in a ceremony that took place in Jaffa in 1975. H.Z. had to declare that she had been baptized into the Catholic faith to marry. She was registered accordingly in the Religious Affairs Ministry’s records. In 1977, H.Z. and her husband moved to Germany, and in 1985, due to tax issues, H.Z. asked that her Israeli citizenship be revoked, noting in official documentation, “I am living as a Christian now anyway.”

In 1992, however, H.Z. asked German authorities to have her name removed from the registrar of the Christian community. And after sustaining severe injuries in a car accident, being abandoned by her husband and losing her mother, H.Z. asked the Interior Ministry to reinstate her Israeli citizenship, claiming her conversion to Christianity was faked. Her request was rejected despite her kosher stamp of approval from two rabbinical courts.

In their carefully argued unanimous decision, the High Court justices established from a diverse array of sources that Israeli citizenship is tied to a highly complex and exclusionary construction made up of religious, national and cultural considerations.

Prime minister David Ben-Gurion, noted the justices, in a 1950 speech to the Knesset during the passage of the Law of Return, which granted automatic Israeli citizenship to any “Jew,” declared that “no other law better expresses the uniqueness of the State of Israel. This law fuses history, culture and religion; past, present and future; aspirations dreams and realities.”

The justices also cited historical studies which showed that Jewish communities throughout the ages sanctioned those members who voluntarily left the fold. These converts to other religions were still considered Jews in the strictly religious sense for the purpose, say, of marriage and divorce – just as H.Z. was still considered Jewish by London’s and Tel Aviv’s rabbinical courts. Nevertheless, communities throughout the ages regularly ostracized these people, the justices noted, suggesting that in modern Israel the refusal to reinstate citizenship was a legitimate response to H.Z.’s behavior.

Legal precedents were mentioned as well. There was the 1962 High Court ruling on Oswald Rufeisan, a Jew who became a Carmelite monk, whose request for Israeli citizenship was rejected despite his self-professed connection to the Jewish people.

In addition, the justices showed how the Knesset’s 1970 amendment to the Law of Return – which stipulated that a Jew was someone who was either “born to a Jewish mother” or “who converted” and had “no other religion” – was obviously inspired by Jewish tradition.

And they noted that Aharon Barak, former president of the Supreme Court, basing himself on solely secular criteria, acknowledged in 1987 that a Jew who believed Jesus was a savior had removed himself from the Jewish collective and was, therefore, to be denied Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

But the truly earth-breaking innovation presented by the justices in H.Z.’s case was the application of the Jewish concept of tshuva to the Law of Return.

H.Z. might have cut herself off from the Jewish people when she embraced Christianity. But the way back is not blocked, the justices made clear. H.Z., rightly, still has a chance to regain her lost Israeli citizenship through the Jewish process of repentance.

Comments

[harold]

a woman who converted to Christianity and immigrated to Germany could not regain her Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return

Great decision! If she wants to "return" then return all the way.

[kisarita]

Isn't it a violation of international law to strip one's citizenship?

[Yosef ben Matitya]

well, with this kind of state attitude, and with germany involved in the case, me think they should consult with nazi legal experts.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Why should this woman repent if she became a Christian? She did nothing wrong. Should a Christian who converts to Judaism have to repent?

What makes this case interesting to me, is not the issue of "repentance," which the Israel High Court got terribly wrong, but that this woman renounced her Israeli citizenship voluntarily. It wasn't as if she was stripped of it because she emigrated elsewhere and converted.

I'm sure there are many Israeli citizens living in the USA who've converted, and who remain Israeli citizens.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Now here's a much more interesting proposition:

Ryan Braun, the great-hitting and not-so-great-fielding outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, has a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, which makes him half-Jewish. His father was born in Israel, came here at age 7, and married his wife in the USA. He's always been Jewish, never converted.

Let us suppose Braun's father wanted to return to Israel, but some Haredi nutcases tried to declare him a "goy" for marrying a shiksa, and the Israel Supreme Court went along.

If this ever happens, I'll start actively supporting the Palestinians like the late Tony Judt.

[moom]

Many countries will revoke your citizenship if you become a citizen of another country. In this case, she even voluntarily revoked her Israeli citizenship. But if these Batei Din say she is Jewish why shouldn't she be able to immigrate as any Oleh to Israel? She shouldn't be able though to get back her Israeli citizenship if she is planning in staying in Germany.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Moon, I agree with you. She should be able to get back her Israeli citizenship if she intends to return to Israel.

All things being equal, however, if it were up to me, and I had a choice, I'd choose Germany, which has become far more tolerant of non-religious Jews than Israel is these days.

[who knows]

1) She was stripped off her Israeli citizenship because she renounced it, not because of her conversion to christianity.

2) Re-immigration of a person who denounced his/her Israeli citizenship is not the same as aliyah of the person who has never been Israeli citizen.

3) She renounced her citizenship in order not to pay Taxes to Israel. Now that she is 60 and crippled and will be a burden to the Israeli society she decided to return and draw on the taxes paid by others. She looks like a secular variety of haredi parazite. That is why haredi batei din support her.

[rg]

I was close to this woman and her family for a long time and saw this ruling coming a while ago. The main thing that the rabbis were pushing was that she would need to reconvert to Judaism to be able to do 'repentance' for her conversion to christianity.

Bear in mind also some other facts: her grandparents were in death camps - she was born in Tel Aviv, and her daughter was accepted for aliyah by the law of return....

[Mr. Apikoros]

Where does it say this woman was crippled? It just says she was in a bad accident. You're making assumptions here.

Germany has an excellent health care system, and this woman has lived there for over 30 years. So I doubt if she wants to reinstate her Israeli citizenship for that reason alone.

[Pierre]

It may "touch" on identity, but it's more modern political identity, not halachic identity; she renounced her Israeli citizenship! I am amazed this piece makes no mention of "Brother Daniel" Rufeisen who wasn't uniformly denied Jewish status, NOR ultimately even Israeli citizenship simply because he was christian; he was denied the right to citizenship through the law of Return - and still became a naturalized citizen!

Rufeisen v Minister of the Interior, (1962) 16 PD 2428

She wants to be Israeli, she may have to repatriate, just like a Jew who doesn't opt for the Law of Return - which is definitely possible and I'm sure has happened. If she wants to return to be with family and have health care, I'm sure there are resources for such non-LOR residents.

It sounds more a matter of ISRAELI identity, not Jewish identity, since there are clearly authorities in the diaspora who consider her a Jew.

[Barry]

Harold this is a great decision but not in the way you understand it.

The modern idea of citizenship is that it is a relationship of rights and duties between a state and its citizen which the citizen has a right to renounce. For renounciation to be complete it must be irrevocable so that the former citizen is in no different position of someone who has never been a citizen and has had no connection with that state. If a former citizen had some right to 'jump the queue' and get back his citizenship in a way that a complete foreigner could not, then the relationship between state and citizen could not have completely ended. See http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html)

The pre-enlightenment principle of citizenship was that it was something you could not renounce. This for example is reflected in Halalcha in that according to Halacha one can never renounce one's Judaism.

Harold, this is a great decision in that when it comes to the relationship between state and citizen, the the Supreme Court has followed modern priciples rather than backward ideology of the rabbis and allow for citizenship to be renounced in a way which rabbis deny for Judaism.

The woman's conversion to Christianity is not relevant when it comes to her losing her citizenship, indeed every Israeli is entitled to convert to Christianity and will not lose his citizenship if he does.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

Sounds kosher to me.

Let her rot in Deutchland eating Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut.

[al Farabi]

Judaism is a cult.

[Mr. Apikoros]

As practiced by the ultra-Orthodox, a cult worse than Scientology, Moonieism, and Wahabbism put together.

[Barry]

al faribi, what does Islam call for, for those who choose to renounce Islam?
Does Syria allow Palestinians to renounce their so called 'citizenship' and become full Syrian citizens to escape the so called 'refugee camps' to which they are confined?

[Jason]

And they noted that Aharon Barak, former president of the Supreme Court, basing himself on solely secular criteria, acknowledged in 1987 that a Jew who believed Jesus was a savior had removed himself from the Jewish collective and was, therefore, to be denied Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

What if a Jew believed that a different Jew (not Jesus, perhaps....hmmm....the Lubavitcher Rebbe) was the savior? Should that close off the possibility of citizenship under the Law of Return?

As others here have said, this woman renounced her citizenship. This takes her out of the "Law of Return" category and it is not unreasonable to make her jump through some hoops if they are to renew her citizenship at all. Her "conversion," however, should have nothing to do with it.

Now, the real question I have is: if this woman came before the TA rabbinical court today, would they still find her Jewish?

[Mr. Apikoros]

What the Arabs do, Barry, doesn't make ultra-Orthodoxy any less intolerant nor any less bad. There's no moral or other equivalence here.

[Radical Feminist]

MA writes"As practiced by the ultra-Orthodox, a cult worse than Scientology, Moonieism, and Wahabbism put together."

Are you serious? Granted their are some jerks in the Haredi community but worse then Wahabism? Worse then a sect that buries women to the waste and stones them to death? Worse then a sect that executes women for the crime of being raped? Worse then a sect that chops women's noses and ears off for disobedience? Come on. We have long way to go before the Haredi are even close to that level of sick. Granted I don't like sitting in the back of the bus number 2 any more then the next gal but it is better then life as woman in Saudi Arabia any day.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Jews are supposed to be better than Arabs so my point stands.

[Bill]

Radical,

The Orthodox Jew-wannabes are far worse than the Wahhabis.

The Orthodox rape little children, and that beats everything on your list - in my view.

[Radical Feminist]

Bill writes "The Orthodox rape little children, and that beats everything on your list - in my view

Obviously Bill, you have not been reading the news lately. The marriage age in Yemen in 10. Children are sold into marriage to pay off debts all the time. In fact, much of child sexual abuse and slavery in Africa and the Middle-East can be linked to Wahabi money. This includes human traffiking all over the Middle-East and Asia.

[Radical Feminist]

MA writes, "Jews are supposed to be better than Arabs so my point stands."

Actually, your point is that the Haredi are worse. And the plain fact is, they are not even close. For more information about the horrors of child sex slavery and genital mutilation, to name a few of the activities going on in the Wahabi world check out Human Rights Watch and the World Health Organizations statistics.

[Jordan Hydro]

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