62% does not consider conversion via Rabbinate as necessary condition
Survey: recognition of non-Jewish family members under Law of Return
62% of Israel’s adult Jewish public does not consider religious conversion through the Chief Rabbinate as a necessary condition for recognizing the Jewishness of immigrants who are the family members of Jews but whose mothers are not Jewish.
06/01/2020 14:49
Tags: Jewish identity · non-Jews · Jews · the Law of Return · Israel · Israeli citizenship · Hiddush polls
Following the media storm, which broke out after Hiddush published the numbers of non-Jewish immigrants to Israel in recent years under the Law of Return, Hiddush commissioned a special survey from the Smith Polling Institute to examine the position of Israel’s adult Jewish public on this matter. Hiddush received the data from Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority (PIA) in response to a Freedom of Information demand it submitted, and according to PIA [after they drastically altered the data they had initially provided] more than 37% of all immigrants to Israel under the Law of Return during the past eight years are not Jews according to the Law of Return, but were granted Oleh [Immigrant] status as the family members of Jews. The data also show that some 2/3 of those who immigrated to Israel from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldava in 2019 are not Jews according to the legal definition. They accounted for 68% of all immigrants to Israel this year.
The survey examined the public's position on the acceptance of immigrants as Jews, even if they do not meet the Chief Rabbinate’s standards for “Who is a Jew” or even the definition that exists in the Law of Return. The representative sample of the adult Jewish public in Israel was asked: “Many have immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return and have integrated into Israel in all walks of life. Some have immigrated as the family members of Jews, as the Law grants, though they are not considered Jews according to the current legal definition, which requires a Jewish mother or religious conversion. Do you accept that those immigrants with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers should be recognized as Jews, or should they be required to convert to Judaism as a condition of their being recognized as Jews?” 34% opined that, “Such immigrants should be recognized as Jews.” An additional 28% responded that, “They should be recognized as Jews if they undergo religious conversion, whether Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform.” Only 38% responded that, “They should be recognized as Jews only if they undergo religious conversions approved by the Chief Rabbinate.”
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Among those planning to vote for Blue & White in the upcoming elections, 87% see no need for the Chief Rabbinate’s approval of these Israeli immigrants’ status as Jews: 52% responded that such immigrants should be accepted as Jews even without conversion, and another 35% responded that they should be accepted as Jews, whether converted by Orthodox, Reform, or Conservative rabbis. Only 13% maintain that their acceptance as Jews should be conditional upon the approval of the Chief Rabbinate. The same goes for those who intend to vote for Yisrael Beiteinu: 60%; 30%; and only 10% see the need for the Chief Rabbinate's approval. Among those planning to vote for Likud, 56% see a need for the Rabbinate's approval.
The distribution of attitudes according to the respondents' religious identities shows that among the secular Jewish public [about half the Jewish population], 54% believe that such immigrants should be accepted as Jews without conversion. So too do 48% of those who consider themselves “traditional, not-so-religious” [19% of the sample]; 12% of those who consider themselves “traditional, close to religion” [13% of the sample]; and 9% of the Zionist Orthodox public. In addition, 33% of secular Jews hold that such immigrants should be accepted as Jews if they convert through any of the religious Jewish streams [so too do 36% of traditional-non-religious; 32% of traditional-close-to-religion(!); and 19% of the Zionist Orthodox public(!)]. Only 13% of secular Israeli Jews maintain that the acceptance of such immigrants as Jews must be conditioned upon the Chief Rabbinate’s approval, as does 16% of the traditional non-religious public, 57% of the traditional-close-to-religion public, and 72% of the Zionist Orthodox public.
The majority of the public is fed up with the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over major facets of Jewish life in Israel, and it is ready to accept these new immigrants as Jews even without the Rabbinate's approval.
The majority of the public is fed up with the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over major facets of Jewish life in Israel, and it is ready to accept these new immigrants as Jews even without the Rabbinate's approval. It's time to consider expanding the definition of Jewish status in Israel, as many prominent Israeli public figures and Jewish thinkers have suggested in the past. Inasmuch as the State of Israel sees itself as the State of the Jewish People, it should acknowledge that the Jewish People today does not consider itself subject to the Chief Rabbinate's scepter and rejects its norms and dictates. The challenge of Aliyah and the diversity of contemporary Jewry requires a rethinking of the definition of Judaism that guides Israel as a Jewish and democratic State. In the meantime, the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly must be dismantled and multiple roads for conversion should be fully and equally recognized by the State. The State of Israel must allow civil marriage and divorce, thereby enabling hundreds of thousands of citizens who came on Aliyah and are currently being denied the right to family [for the Chief Rabbinate does not recognize them as Jewish; and there is no legal civil alternative] to marry.
Given the findings of this survey, we can only hope that, following the upcoming elections, a broad civil unity coalition will be formed, which will overturn the unholy alliance of religion & state in Israel, respect the will of the majority of the Israeli public, and act in accordance with the values of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which guarantees freedom of religion and conscience, as well as equality for all.
Back in 2000, the late Miriam Ben Porat, the former State Comptroller and Deputy Chief Justice, stated publicly that she saw no reason to recognize only the children of Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers as Jewish, but not to recognize as Jewish those with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who see themselves as an integral part of the Jewish People, share the same upbringing, education, social absorption, etc., as their Jewish neighbors and colleagues. She expressed her view particularly in the context of the waves of immigration from the former Soviet Union, which includes many of these cases. Over the years, this opinion has been often heard in public. For example, the famous thinker and scholar, the late Professor Gershom Scholem, expressed this in 1971: “A Jew is a person, one of whose parents is a Jew and who identifies as a Jew by assuming the duty and privilege of being a Jew.”
This public opinion survey was conducted by telephone on December 24-25, 2019 among a representative sample of 500 adult Israeli Jews [ages 18 and older]. Sampling error is ± 4.5%