Speech #910226284

In practice. however. there has been a strong tendency to defer to the orthodox definition. which considers Jewish nationality indissolubly linked to religious commitment. Until the recent Shalit case. in which the Supreme Court of Israel conferred the status of "Jewish nationality" upon the children of a gentile mother and a Jewish atheist. only those born of a Jewish mother or a convert to Judaism could be considered Jewish in the national sense. and then only if the individual in question had not renounced the Jewish faith or adhered to another creed. It was in terms of this definition that in 1963 Father Daniel Rufeisen. a Catholic priest born of Jewish parents was denied immediate citizenship as a Jewish immigrant under the Law of Return. though the residence requirements of naturalization were minimized. It is also because the state tacitly accepts the position that religious affiliation is the basis of Jewish nationality that mixed marriages are not legally recognized in Israel. that Jewish sects which the rabbinate considers radical have been subjected to legal and institutional disabilities. and that public observance of the Sabbath is forced upon the entire population. Considering the secular character of Zionism and of the great majority of Israelis. the deference to religious interpretations of Jewish nationality seems anachronistic.