Another lot of the wrong kind of Jews…
JVL Introduction
Policing borders is never easy for the “Jewish state”.
Israel’s right of return essentially defined Jews as Hitler had done, for good reasons. If you would have been persecuted as a Jew by Hitler, the law gave you a right of refuge in Israel (bizarrely termed a right of “return”).
That right was also extended to those who convert to Judaism though “the right kind” of process.
While having the advantage of making Palestinians generally ineligible to “return” (actually return), it has allowed an awful number of non-Jews (particularly Russians with a Jewish member in their family) to immigrate.
The Orthodox rabbinate who control issues of civil status in Israel can’t really bear it. Their obsession with racial purity continues to be felt in Israel’s immigration policies.
For them, any exception from the strict halachic definition of a Jew (viz having a Jewish mother) has to be resisted.
So, while living as Jews, as do the Abayudaya community in Uganda, is good enough for the Jewish Agency who regard them as a “recognized Jewish community”, Israel’s Interior Ministry does not.
Read on…
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Mon 25 Jan 2021. Read the original here.
Ugandan Jews Not Eligible to Immigrate to Israel, State Informs High Court
Decision overrules Jewish Agency, which had formally recognized the 2,000-strong Abayudaya community several years ago. A ruling in favor of the state could have serious repercussions for ’emerging Jewish communities’ around the world
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Is it not ironical that one of Herzl’s initial choices for his proposed Jewish homeland is usually referred to as the Uganda project? (actually it was mainly in what is now Kenya, where the ‘white Highlanders’ were establishing a racially pure aristocratic enclave by driving out the local peasantry…
Sounds reminiscent? Of course, when the Kikuyu and their descendants sought to reclaim their ancestral lands and rights, they were denounced as savage murders, who even took oaths of loyalty to their cause… not very civilised, or even British, what? And ten tons of incriminating documents were dumped in the Indian Ocean… sounds reminiscent, eh?
The fact they are poor black Africans is of course a complete coincidence. Obviously had nothing to do with the decision. Is there a comparotor with a white Jewish community?
I am pretty sure that the Ugandan Jews who are not being allowed to immigrate to Israel are not unhalachic (is there such a word?!) for lack of a Jewish mother as you have said. Their rejected status derives from their having being converted to Judaism by Conservative Jews i.e. their converters were non-Orthodox and hence ‘the wrong kind of Jews’!! I don’t think their blackness is the issue either – they are not the only community of ’emerging Jews’ and some of these communities are not black either. Read the article again slowly!
Why should anyone of whatever description be allowed to immigrate at the expense of the Palestinians – particularly as they may end up in an illegal settlement, mostly with Americans who like playing with Uzis ?