Should Israel loosen immigration rules amid rising antisemitism?

Why Israel should expand its Law of Return for other Jews amid increasing antisemitism.

By COOKIE SCHWEBER-ISSAN NOVEMBER 21, 2024 01:55

YOUNG OLIM who made aliyah with Youth Aliya Israel 1951 (photo credit: Anu – Museum of the Jewish People/Leni Sonnenfeld)

In his article titled “What kind of Jew are you?” Micah Avni, host of the Hebrew podcast The Leadership of Tomorrow, wonders why Europe’s Jews in the 1930s failed to heed the blatant signs of antisemitism and flee in order to save themselves.

He ends by challenging each one to ask, “What kind of Jew am I? The kind who runs, the kind who helps, the kind who fights, or the kind who turns a blind eye?” Then he says, “Your response will define not only your own fate but the future of the Jewish people for generations to come.” 

Avni is, in effect, saying that all Jews are the masters of their fate, because they have the ability to leave, as he did nearly 40 years ago when he sensed danger, causing him to immigrate to Israel. But can Jews still do likewise?

Another recent article, “The goal: Another million olim,” spoke about 2025 as the year when a fresh batch of immigrants should flood Israel, a boon that would greatly help the ailing economy after a year of fighting an existential war. Those people could fill in the gaps of missing doctors, teachers, academics, and other needed professions. 

The intersection of these two articles is found in their shared objective of encouraging Jews to leave their respective countries of origin, for the purpose of opportunity as well as rescuing themselves while they still can.

However, these articles are somewhat misleading, because they cause the reader to believe that it is possible for any Jew to immigrate to the Jewish homeland, if that is one’s personal choice. Sadly, it is not quite that easy!

Dutch police officers detain a man after riots in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 11, 2024. (credit: Mizzle Media/Handout via REUTERS)

Jews attacked abroad

But it should be, especially at a time when Jews are finding themselves in perilous situations as they vacation, travel, study, and outwardly identify as Jews.

We’ve seen in recent days how Israeli tourists in Amsterdam, Belgium, and Berlin were attacked, how Jewish students have been viciously targeted on campuses, how wearing a kippah or Jewish star can be a source of danger, and, most recently, how one Italian hotelier in the Dolomites refused to accept Israelis as guests. 

While these alarming signs point to Avni being correct about this being the right time to flee, it’s also, unfortunately, the time when Israel’s Interior Ministry has continued to have a partially open-door policy to those who wish to enter the Jewish state.

IF YOU are an assimilated Jew who intermarried or an unaffiliated Jew who chose to opt out of religious activity, meaning that you are unable to produce a letter from a local rabbi attesting to your being an active member of the community, or if you were born Jewish but have chosen to believe in another faith, you will not be considered an eligible candidate for immigration to the homeland, established as a refuge for those who are ethnically Jewish (an irreversible birthright despite personal preferences).

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It’s no longer the 1930s but nearly 2025, and Diaspora Jews are a diverse tapestry of individuals who constitute many contrasting viewpoints, orientations, and beliefs, as a result of having had the freedom to be whomever they wanted.

Now, at a time when they are faced with the daunting reality of persecution, physical harm, and ethnic disenfranchisement, those who do not fit the “traditional” mold will find themselves persona non grata by the gatekeepers of their own homeland, who could choose to overlook whatever arbitrary conditions they tacked on to the Law of Return, by simply recognizing them as Jews from birth and asking no further questions.

This would be the merciful and generous thing to do, because it might spare hundreds of thousands of them from the worst that is yet to come. But it is not what is happening. The excessively stringent process, requesting obscure proof through paperwork that is unattainable, is demanded, often wearing them down as they realize the futility in trying to secure these documents.

This is unnecessary and burdensome, because most people have some way to prove that one of their parents or grandparents were Jewish – the sole requirement to gain citizenship. Yet, the mean-spiritedness and exclusivity, which has been operative for at least the last 20 years, has prevented countless Jewish people from being able to make the move, because a heartless bureaucracy felt that being born Jewish was not sufficient.

While this cruel practice has persisted, turning away talented and skilled prospective immigrants who had a lot to offer their ancestral homeland, no one in the government has done anything to change this disgraceful policy.

Now, more than ever, it is time to abandon this type of fanaticism based on discrimination toward those who think differently from today’s rabbinical leaders. Unlike clothing, Judaism is not a one-size-fits-all ideology. It is, however, an ethnicity by birth and irreversible, regardless of one’s personal belief system.

As the dark signs of Jew-hatred increase worldwide, it’s important to remember that persecutors do not stop to ask Jews who they are, nor are they interested in whether they have membership in a synagogue. It is enough for them that they are ethnically connected, and for those who are, they will not be spared.If the goal is truly to bring another million olim to Israel in the year 2025, the Interior Ministry must widely throw open its doors to all Jews, without reservation. If they do, they will get even more than a million. They will get millions, if they welcome them!

Facilitating the return of Jews to their homeland is a biblical, moral, and just charge, which the government of Israel should recognize, especially now, because 2025 may very well resemble the 1930s, with one exception – there is a Jewish homeland. Will all Jews, this time, be able to be the masters of their fate, because they have an escape hatch that is open to them?

The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.