If your grandfather was Jewish, are you Jewish in 'Eretz Yisrael'? By Ha'aretz Daily

The recent attempt to amend the Law of Return to limit the immigration of grandchildren of Jews aroused a flurry of reactions - some expected, some less so - within the immigrant community and among its leaders.

Not much was left to Abraham Elkin to bequeath to his family after World War II in Belarus.To his son Alexander he bequeathed the name "Alexander Abramowitz," the way Russians create names based on the father's first name, and beatings to which the son was subjected because his patronymic identified him as a Jew; to his granddaughter Yekaterina he in turn bequeathed the Jewish surname, a basic connection to Judaism and the grandchild clause in the Law of Return, which permits immigration to Israel by the grandchild of a Jew. From her father, an officer in the Soviet army whose mother and wife are not Jewish, Yekaterina inherited a great love for the army.

Six years ago, all of this bequest came together in a decision to immigrate to Israel in the framework of the Na'aleh projects, which brings young people to Israel without their parents. When she was growing up, her grandfather told her about the fact that she was Jewish, shared the Judaism of his youth with her, told her that up until the age of 12 he had spoken only Yiddish at home and instilled pride in her about her Jewish surname.

Young Yekaterina took this heritage seriously. Often, she had no choice. From time to time her name would give her away, and people would call her "Zhidovka" ("Jew-girl"). At the age of 13, she began to attend a Jewish Sunday school, where she learned about the Jewish holidays and the state of Israel. At 16 she decided to immigrate to Israel, with the declared aim of enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces. She did this. With great pride she would go around in her uniform, and was sometimes subjected to comments like: "What's that blonde Russian girl doing in an IDF uniform?" One of her greatest frustrations, now that she is studying to be an electronics technician while supporting herself with cleaning jobs, is that she has not been called up for reserve duty. Yekaterina Elkin wants very much to serve in the territories. This is her way of expressing her Israeliness. The state gladly brought her to Israel, but is now preventing her from marrying in this country. After all, she is not Jewish. Elkin and her future husband, who is also an immigrant, are looking for an inexpensive way to get married abroad.

Her parents immigrated here two years ago. Her grandfather Abraham, the one thanks to whom all of them have come here, has remained in Belarus to take care of his sick wife. Thus, the story of the Elkin family reflects the reversal of the intention of the grandchild clause: The only member of the family who is a Jew according to Jewish law has remained there, while his non-Jewish descendants have come to Israel thanks to him. The intention of the law has been distorted, but it now reflects a socio-political truth that has developed over time.

Yekaterina Elkin represents a new breed of Israeliness and Jewishness. In the past, she had considered the possibility of converting, but, as she says, "something bothers her." She feels that she is Jewish because of her grandfather, and Israeli by virtue of her military service. "It's a confused state," she says. "They want a Jewish state, but in any case there are Arab citizens here. So how can it be a Jewish state?"

Thus, in simple words, this young woman sums up one of the most difficult issues in the Israeli experience. It is not by chance that the issue has come up again for discussion at this time, when all the discourse concerning the future of the state is laden with "existential" charges. Many see a sword of Damocles hanging over not only the collective physical existence of the state, but also over its collective Jewish existence.

There are those who favor a more lenient policy in order to bring as many immigrants as possible to Israel, as long as they are not Arabs, on the assumption that the immigrants will join up with the Jewish collective. Others, like MK Michael Kleiner (Herut-National Movement) who proposed the law to cancel the grandchild clause, want to decrease the number of immigrants, in order to prevent entry into Israel by non-Jews, whose future identification with the Jewish collective is in doubt.

In dry numbers, the phenomenon is nearly minuscule. According to official estimates, only about 50,000 people (out of about a million in the last wave of immigration) have come to Israel by virtue of clause 4A, the "grandchild" clause. The internal dynamics of the immigration tell a more complex story: If in 1991 only 1.5 percent of all the immigrants from the Confederation of Independent States entered under the grandchild clause, in 2001 they accounted for nearly 14 percent of the immigrants.

"The grandchild clause was added to the law for the sake of the grandfather, so that he would be entitled to bring his grandchildren," says Kleiner. "I don't want to thwart the intention of the 1970 law, but it was not aimed at a hungry grandson in Russia who is now himself 70 years old, without any connection to Judaism, who suddenly discovers that he had a Jewish grandfather and this entitles him to the absorption basket and health insurance, without this stopping him from going to church here too ... The day is not far off when there will be a strong and functioning Christian community here. Between the Muslim fertility rate and Christian immigration, we will turn into a second Lebanon."

The proposal to change the grandchild clause might have been expected to have come from Shas. After all, it is they who are suspected of a desire to limit the number of Ashkenazim and secular people in the population, for political reasons. The fact that the change has been proposed by Kleiner, a secular Ashkenazi, did not really confuse anyone who is involved with the issue. Shas, whose ministers supported Kleiner's proposal in the ministerial committee on legislative matters and in the government, was immediately identified with the proposal. Interior Minister Eli Yishai became the main spokesman on its behalf.

After the fact, Kleiner thinks that the involvement of Shas has not stood him in good stead. The same thing happened to him in 1990, when the Shas interior minister at the time, Yitzhak Peretz, took over the ownership of the same proposal by Kleiner. "Shas's involvement has knocked down my law in the government," he says. "Political elements that had initially promised support had to retreat from it after it was identified with Shas. I can't understand (Housing and Construction Minister) Natan Sharansky [at whose appeal Kleiner's proposal was discussed in the government and dropped in a vote - L.G.]. In the past, when he thought that MK Roman Bronfman was threatening him politically, he was interested in changes in the Law of Return. Now, when he thinks that Bronfman is no longer a threat, he apparently wants the gentiles' votes for himself."

Predictably, Kleiner's proposal aroused great interest in the community of immigrants from the CIS. Their reactions were less predictable. "This is an important proposal but it doesn't go far enough," says Sophia Ron, the political correspondent for the Russian-language newspaper Vesty and herself an immigrant. "There is no logic in bringing them here, apart from the mistaken assumption by some politicians that `the Russian street' does not want to block their way. But no one has really asked them.

"Of course there are those who have a family interest in the grandchild clause, but there are also many others who think that in a period of unemployment it is a mistake to bring over more people, non-Jews, who will compete in the labor market. So if the State of Israel wants to encourage the immigration of non-Jews against the Arabs, it should say so frankly. I myself don't trust such a community ... If they must, they should bring over mercenaries, which would be much cheaper than the Law of Return and the absorption basket."

Kleiner's proposal has sown embarrassment in the field of immigration politics. MK Michael Nudelman of Yisrael Beiteinu, who is also chairman of the Zionist Forum, initially supported Kleiner's proposal. After he realized that this was not his party's position, he withdrew. Nonetheless, he relates that during the years he lived in Kiryat Shmona he met non-Jewish immigrants "who were more patriotic than the veterans."

"A Russian child who comes to Israel," he says, and goes through kindergarten, school and the army here is no less Jewish than any Jew. "This is a cultural Judaism," says Nudelman.

Absorption Minister Yuli Edelstein of Yisrael b'Aliyah argues that there is no need to amend the law, but rather to apply it. "The Jewish Agency's policy has to be changed, so that instead of looking for Jewish names in the phone book they really try to bring Jews."

MK Roman Bronfman, the head of the Democratic Choice Party, was the first to protest against Kleiner's proposal. "This will open a Pandora's box," he says. "From the moment they open the law to changes, you can expect a change in the reservoir of potential immigrants. In another two generations, half of the Jewish people, with the way they define themselves today as belonging to a cultural-historical ethnic group, will be outside the Law of Return. Coming from Kleiner, it is stupid and racist. I don't measure the law by the demographic issue, but by Israel's role as remaining a national home for the Jews. This whole thing is growing up on the background of a demographic obsession."

Indeed, the demographic obsession is becoming very creative. Kleiner takes a holistic approach: While he is proposing a change in the Law of Return that will limit immigration of non-Jews to Israel, he is also submitting a proposal to encourage Arabs to immigrate to Arab countries, suggesting to the Zionist Congress that the Jewish Agency give Jews financial incentives to have more children and is even examining the possibility of establishing in Israel a ministry for the encouragement of marriage, like the one operating in Singapore.

_{The above article was quote from H'a'retz Daily, click here to view the full report}.