Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is eliminating the category of “other” in its official publications, which means that all non-Jews who aren’t Arab will now be classified as being in the “extended Jewish population.”
The new classification will include hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the FSU who gained Israeli citizenship through the Law of Return and non-Jews who gained citizenship by marrying Jews – up to 4.6% of the Israeli population or 415, 147 Israelis (as of 2020).
A request by Intelligence Minister Elazer Stern to the CBS prompted the change. Stern claimed that Israel’s goal is to convert non-Jewish immigrants and classifying them as “other” will alienate them.
Although the new classification is purely symbolic and does not have practical significance, it well reflects the goal of the current Bennett government to convert non-Jewish Israelis in a manner that is opposed by the majority of poskim.
“The current situation is hurtful to immigrants who came to Israel under the Law of Return, and feel they are part of the Jewish people,” Stern said. “Our goal is for these people to join the Jewish people, and not be separated from it by all sorts of precursory actions, including the current unjustified division in the CBS.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
Liberalism is a mental disorder
Grandchildren of trotskyites
the time come for all real jews to stand up and declare that we have no portion in the state of israel or anything that it represents.
they can convert and classify anyone as anything, but it has nothing to do with torah jews.
we just have to find another name for ourselves that’s it, since they aren’t gonna change.
ISRAELI JEWS ARE NOT REAL JEWS, unless they happen to also be really jewish, a small possibility.
just like cristians or muslims are not jews just because they accept certain Jewish concepts (they are actually more jewish than the average israeli! which regard to jewish concepts), unless they happen to be jewish; so too israelis are not jew.
Can YWN and everyone there just get it through their heads and stop posting articles that have zero meaning, please?
New headline: Iraq to classify Russians as muslim!
who cares????????????
Finally finally the real פרצוף of the “Yidish Medinah” is unfolding for the blind too. We the people dont have to remind the world that Israel was founded on everything BUT Judaism.
Chasdei Hashem to the “Jewish” leaders of Israel for making it crystal clear to the stuppos that were still cozy with the forbidden State called Jewish State.
With tzaddikim like these who needs reshaim?
what an insult to the jewish people and even more so, to these people from the FSU. Can you imagine, these good Jesus loving Christians are being branded “Jewish?” Would you like it if a country you lived in branded you “extended Christian?”
I have never heard anyone that quotes the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis yimach shemam a “yeah it was 6M but not all of them were really Jewish because some of them were Reform converts and some of them had non-jewish mothers”. We always quote 6M. We mourn 6M. We ask Hashem to take Nekamah on behalf of 6M. This is the basis of the Law of Return. If one was Jewish enough for Hitler yimach shemo one is Jewish enough to become an Israeli citizen. The CBS is doing nothing other than counting the live ones the same way we count the Kedoshim. I have a hard time figuring out what the problem is.
a good interim or permanent designation, particularly for those the Nazis would have murdered as Jews. a subset will want a halakhic giyur, which is not implied by the designation
This article is utterly confusing, but I don’t know whether it is the article or the underlying story that is confusing. Can a person immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return without being Jewish? If an immigrant is admitted because he/she is married to a Jew, is the immigrant currently classified as “other”? That makes sense to me. Would that immigrant under the new system now be classified as “extended Jewish”? That sounds … hmmmm … unsound.
Of course, the real problem is that the Zionists dare to express any opinion on who is or is not a Jew when that is a halachic matter, not political.
The Zionists, were they interested in being honest, as opposed to shmad, should simply write “Israeli” rather than “Jew”, and then they can do away with the “extended” label, too.
If they identify as porcupines then they should be treated as porcupines. They could use any restroom they desire. What is the problem here? Ask AOC.