Who is a Jew in Israel?
By Aaron Baron
In 1958, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion sent a letter to 51 Jewish scholars to ask for their opinions on the standards that Israel should use to define Jewish identity. Of the 46 answers Ben-Gurion received, 38 concluded that a Jew is a person born to a Jewish mother. Based upon these responses, Israel adopted a halakhic (biblical) criteria for defining who is a Jew.
It is worth noting, however, that under Israel’s Law of Return anyone with a Jewish grandparent is permitted to make aliyah and receive Israeli citizenship. The Law of Return functions as a tool to remove Jews from the Diaspora and provide them a rightful return to their homeland, but its guidelines clash with the halakhic definition of a “Jew.” The reasoning behind the discrepancy was to provide an immediate route to citizenship for immigrants with Jewish ancestry who had to flee their mother countries.
Religious Israelis, or Datim, have argued that Israel’s secular leadership granted citizenship to people who are not identified as Jewish by halakha (Jewish law) in order to undermine the impact of religious voters in Israeli politics. While this is an interesting claim, there is little evidence to support the Datim’s charge.
In early 2020, the Chief Rabbinate was ridiculed for their controversial decision to use DNA testing to prove someone’s Judaism. Despite the public outrage at the Chief Rabbinate’s discriminatory practices, a panel of High Court justices upheld the rabbinical courts ruling that the Chief Rabbinate may request DNA testing to prove someone’s Judaism. The notion that the Chief Rabbinate has the right to demand a DNA test proving one’s Judaism is insulting and embarrassing for the parties involved. The court ruling has undoubtedly caused a deeper hatred for the Chief Rabbinate and furthered the divide between the secular and religious societies of Israel.
Supporters of the Chief Rabbinate firmly back their decision to strictly determine who is a Jew. After all, the Jewish state must uphold its Jewish character. If Israel loosens its definition of who is a Jew will its future as the sole Jewish state be in jeopardy? Unfortunately, these individuals have lost sight of one of the main reasons why Israel was founded: to function as a place of refuge for all Jews. To supporters of the Chief Rabbinate’s decision, I pose the same question Ofer Aderet raised in his Haaretz article: how can it be that the same people who were considered “Jewish enough” to be persecuted under the Nuremberg Laws are suddenly not “Jewish enough” to be recognized as Jews by the Chief Rabbinate?
Surprisingly, a majority of Israelis might not give the answer you would expect. A poll conducted this past September by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) found that 70% of Israeli Jews reject the notion that someone who is Jewish by patrilineal descent should be considered a Jew. Given roughly 45% of Israeli Jews identify as secular, the statistic reported by the IDI is staggering. Rejecting Judaism through patrilineal descent has proven to be one of the few issues that religious and secular Israelis see eye-to-eye on.
Within the last few years, there has been growing optimism that Israel is distancing itself from the once stringent policies of the rabbinate. In the spring of 2021, the High Court of Justice officially recognized reform and conservative conversions carried out in Israel. Given the Chief Rabbinate’s stranglehold over personal matters in Israel — including marriage and divorce — the High Court’s ruling was a landmark resolution. The decision was the result of an appeal made in 2005 by 12 Israeli Jews who converted to Judaism through non-Orthodox denominations in the state. While opponents of the Chief Rabbinate’s “who is a Jew?” interpretation hope to not wait over 15 years for justice to be brought by the High Court, there is no doubt that Israel has turned over a new leaf.
None of Israel’s forefathers could have predicted the consequences of Ben Gurion’s letter in 1958. Though age-old questions of Judaism remain contested in Israel, a glimmer of hope exists for those from “non-traditional” Jewish backgrounds. With a new coalition in the state on the horizon, striking the balance between Israel’s Jewish character and democratic values is crucial.
