Joining the Jewish People: Non-Jewish Immigrants from the Former USSR, Israeli Identity and Jewish Peoplehood

Yakobson, Alexander

doi:10.1017/s0021223700000108

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…They cannot register as Jews, but it would be refutable to claim that the formal registration, which was removed from identity cards in 2004 and was left only in the ministry of interior's records, is the only parameter for Jewish national identity. In this sense, I agree with Yakobson () and Perez () who have argued that the immigration and integration of non‐Jewish Jews have strengthened the ethno‐secular concept of Judaism.…”

Section: Discussion – Religion Immigration and Integration: Is Israesupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Decendents of either Jewish father or mother are recognized as Jews in the Diaspora by progressive Jewish movements. In the Israeli context, Cohen and Susser () named this group Non‐Jewish Jews , since they are not recognized as Jews by the State, however, they are not merely Israelis but rather may be considered Jewish in terms of personal identification and national ethno‐secular belonging (see also Yakobson ). This liminal group is the subject of this research.…”

Section: Israel's Immigration Naturalization and Integration Policiementioning

confidence: 99%

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Secularization of immigration policy vs. religion's influence on integration: Israel's non‐Jewish Jews' immigration in a comparative perspective

Fisher

2018

Nations and Nationalism

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This article deals with the complex relationship between religion and immigration in Western countries, with an emphasis on Israel. The main argument it presents is that the legal procedures of immigration, i.e. laws relating to the acquisition of civil status, have undergone dramatic secularization, while religion's influence is expressed in the social and cultural aspects of the integration of immigrants belonging to religious minorities. This division reinforces the classical theory of secularization, as the formal boundaries of nations are not subject to religious affiliations, but it also supports the theories of competition and complementation between religion and secularism in the social sphere. The tension in the Israeli case between the immigration, naturalization and integration of non‐Jewish Jews, who are part of the extended Jewish population that is not defined by religious parameters, confirms this thesis. The immigration of hundreds of thousands of non‐Jewish Jews' under the Law of Return based on ethno‐national‐secular parameters is an ultimate expression of the secularization of Jewish nationality. On the other hand, the state's encouragement of non‐Jewish immigrants to convert to Judaism so that they can better assimilate into Jewish society signifies the importance of religion in the social integration aspect.

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Section: Discussion – Religion Immigration and Integration: Is Israesupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Israel's Immigration Naturalization and Integration Policiementioning

confidence: 99%

Secularization of immigration policy vs. religion's influence on integration: Israel's non‐Jewish Jews' immigration in a comparative perspective

Fisher

2018

Nations and Nationalism

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“…Although non-Jewish immigrants do encounter specific problems due to the prominence of orthodox religion in Israel, especially in regard to personal status, de facto, however, Yakobson rightly summarized the situation, 'they belong À and their descendants will even more indisputably belong À socially and culturally to the Hebrew-speaking, Jewish-Israeli society'. 84 Yakobson, Cohen and Susser do not associate their present interpretation with Ben Gurion's 'Judaization' policy, but the link is clear: Israel has absorbed hundreds of thousands of people due to their association with the Jewish people according to the civic interpretation of the biblical model of joining, and not according to the halachic one.…”

Section: From the 1950s To The Presentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Integrating non-Jewish immigrants and the formation of Israel's ethnic–civic nationhood: from Ben Gurion to the present

Fisher

Shilon

2016

Middle Eastern Studies

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The character and values of communities and countries are reflected in the way they define their boundaries and by the means they provide for those who wish to join them. Thus, immigration policy based on primordial ethnic affinities points to a society which anchors its collective identity in the past, while a state with joining rules based on individual civic requirements reflects a more open and inclusive concept of nationalism. The immigration and naturalization policy of each state is determined at the time of its inception, and the definition of these boundaries infuses practical content into its vision. However, both the vision and its content may undergo modifications depending on historical circumstances. For example, US immigration policy, adopted after the Second World War, was based on neutral criteria of immigrant admission reflecting the fact that it is a country of immigrants whose civic identity lies on individual-liberal foundations. Similarly, at the beginning of the 2000s, Germany integrated civic principles into its ethnic naturalization laws to facilitate veteran immigrants' assimilation and naturalization. On the other hand, the ethnic citizenship laws in the Baltic states, which emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union, endowing citizenship to descendants of nationals despite years of their living abroad, reflect the importance of ethno-historical foundations of national identity from these countries' perspective. 1 In this article, we intend to focus on the Israeli case and explain the link between its immigration and naturalization policy and its collective self-perception. We argue that Israel's policy was designed at the time of the state's establishment by David Ben Gurion, in an attempt to construct a national Jewish identity based on a creative interpretation of religious tradition, oriented also towards building a modern inclusive Jewish nation. In Israel, as in some other countries, changes in immigration policy have been made. However, in our view, in the Israeli case, these changes have not replaced the basic principles originally set by Ben Gurion; rather, they have actually confirmed the continued commitment to these fundamental principles.

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“…This is the process whereby non-Halakhic Jews, through their adoption of Jewish-Israeli culture, their military service, and their contribution to every aspect of economic and social life in the country, become part of the Jewish national collective without religious procedures, thus demonstrating that religious conversion is not a sine qua non for joining the Jewish people (Cohen and Susser 2009;Leshem 2008;Yakobson 2010).…”

Section: The Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spousal Covenant (Brit Hazugiut), or the Covenant with the Status Quo

Fogiel-Bijaoui¹

2013

Israel Studies Review

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In 2010, the Knesset passed the Spousal Covenant Act, which enables Israelis 'lacking religious affiliation' to marry and divorce in Israel. Using the 'twin tolerations' theory, I present the process and the actors involved in the legislation, pointing out that in Israel the twin tolerations are reflected in the so-called status quo. On the basis of that analysis, I argue that the spousal covenant, initially aimed at solving the problem of all individuals forbidden to marry in Israel, but especially 'non-Halakhic' Jews from the FSU, ended up as a marginalizing law, excluding those non-Halakhic Jews from the Jewish-Israeli collective. I further argue that non-Halakhic Jews from the FSU no longer contest the Israeli religious regime of inclusion and instead use the 'established bypasses'-cohabitation and civil marriage abroad-both to get married and to be part of the national collective.

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Joining the Jewish People: Non-Jewish Immigrants from the Former USSR, Israeli Identity and Jewish Peoplehood

Cited by 15 publications

References 16 publications

Secularization of immigration policy vs. religion's influence on integration: Israel's non‐Jewish Jews' immigration in a comparative perspective

Secularization of immigration policy vs. religion's influence on integration: Israel's non‐Jewish Jews' immigration in a comparative perspective

Integrating non-Jewish immigrants and the formation of Israel's ethnic–civic nationhood: from Ben Gurion to the present

The Spousal Covenant (Brit Hazugiut), or the Covenant with the Status Quo

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