Beilin Introduces Bill on Patrilinial Descent

12/06/2006

On December 6, 2006 Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin introduced in the Knesset a bill that would require Israel's Population Registry to register as Jews all Israelis born of Jewish fathers. The bill applies to hundreds of thousands of Jews from the FSU (former Soviet Union) and countless thousands whose Jewishness is acknowledged by the Reform Movement. He published an op-ed in Yediot Aharonot on the subject.

Refusal to recognize former Russians as Jews a slap on face for many
Yossi Beilin, Yedioth Aharonot

There is no doubt that the aliyah from the former Soviet Union has turned into one of the State of Israel's success stories. True, not all housing and employment problems were solved; not all immigrants work in their profession; older immigrants did not integrate socially and professionally.

Yet from a bird's eye view, we're talking about a very large immigration wave that integrated into Israeli society and upgraded it.

The tragedy of this aliyah is the failure to recognize hundreds of thousands of immigrants as Jews even when they see themselves as Jewish in every way.

Indeed, those people are recognized as Israeli citizens thanks to their Jewish relatives. Yet those who are not Jewish and have become citizens through their partners are not entitled to bring their parents or children from a former marriage to Israel. When such people divorce, the question of their right to stay in Israel emerges, and in the population registry they are of course not recorded as Jews.

Many of them feel unwanted here. The vast majority are atheist or agnostic and are unwilling to lie, convert, and pledge to follow the Mitzvahs and deceive the rabbis who converted them. Many of them are children of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, yet according to the Law of Return, a Jew is only one whose mother is Jewish (or who converted) as accepted by Jewish law.

The fact that in the 21st century we can verify the identity of the father through a DNA test, while a surrogate mother is not the real mother, of course has no influence on Jewish law, according to which one whose mother only is Jewish – is Jewish too, while one whose father only is Jewish – is a gentile.

These immigrants looked out to the legislature to find a way to make it easier for them. The Israel Be'Aliyah party didn't solve their problem, so they voted for Shinui en masse. Shinui didn't help either, so they deserted it and voted for Lieberman's Israel Our Home.

The latter used big words to talk about a partnership convent that could make it easier for the immigrants, and presented it as a condition for joining the government. Yet this condition was forgotten when it did join the coalition, and the immigrants were left behind.

Bill rejected

Last week, when my bill calling for the State to register as Jews even those whose father only is Jewish was up for a vote, all Israel Our Home members made sure to show up and vote against the bill. After all, they're loyal coalition partners.

The bill does not argue with the various branches of Judaism and does not demand that they change their rules. It also does not ask them to conduct themselves in a more liberal manner so that people who moved to Israel, identify with it completely, speak Hebrew, finished Israeli schools and are army veterans will have an easier time converting. Not at all.

The idea behind the bill is to open yet another door to the Jewish people: Instead of the definition of who is a Jew being granted exclusively to religious braches, the non-religious majority would allow other non-religious people to join it and be considered Jewish according to their nationality, not their religion.

If these people would want to marry religious Jews, they will have to undergo conversion, if their partner insists. As most secular people marry secular while most religious marry religious, this will be a minor problem.

Up until the Age of Enlightenment in the18th century, there were almost no non-religious Jews, and those who left Judaism become Christian or adopted another religion. The definition of a person was a religious one, and so was the Jewish definition.

Secularism created a new situation whereby people could define themselves as non-religious or lacking a religion. From that period onward it was possible to distinguish between Jews based on their national-ethnic association, and based on their religion.

Just like most of the Arab world is unwilling to recognize the existence of a Jewish nationality that is different than the Jewish religion, Orthodox Judaism also denies this possibility and forces the non-Orthodox majority to submit to its dictates

In the Knesset vote on a secular definition of a Jew, so that the State registers even those whose father only is Jewish as a Jew, Meretz-Yachad was left alone – and the proposal was rejected. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union again felt that they were cynically betrayed by those they sent to the legislature in order to help them.