As the government is revamping the giyur process, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has issued a call to prevent non-Jews from making aliyah. Today, there are a reported 14 million Jews worldwide. However, according to Israel, there are 23 million people eligible for Israeli citizenship, the new government study reveals.

Alarmed by the realization of the unprecedented assimilation that may result R”L from the revamped giyur process that is going to be set into place, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Dovid Lau Shlita is calling to revamp the Law of Return to only include people who are Jewish in line with halacha. He added that “Israel can decide to be the third world’s welfare state, but as long as that decision has not been taken we must not permit goyim to make aliyah”.

The rav told Ynet about one example that he is personally familiar with, explaining that because a Jewish grandfather is buried in Moscow, descendants numbering over 73 children and grandchildren have succeeded in moving to Israel under the Law of Return. The rav points out that this and other examples like it pose the greatest threat of assimilation through intermarriage.

According to the study by Prof. Sergio Della Pergola from the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University, as of the beginning of 2014, the number of Jews [born to Jewish mothers] stands at 14,212,800 (a 0.66 percent increase in comparison to 2013). If you take into account those born to Jewish fathers, but non-Jewish mothers, the number rises to 17,236,850. And that number continues to increase to 22,921,500 if one basis one’s Jewishness or eligibility as per the Law of Return, which traces Jewish ancestry going back three generations.

The definition is similar to the one laid out by the Nazi’s Nuremberg Laws, and is thus understood to be Israel’s response to the threat posed to Jews by anti-Semitism based on racial and not religious criteria.

The version of the bill that was passed is dramatically different from MK Elazar Stern’s version, which would have granted legitimacy to the Conservative and Reform Movements. The bill passed into law does not make mention of them.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)