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17 Sw. L.J. 123 (1963)
The Definition of a Jew under Israel's Law of Return

handle is hein.journals/smulr17 and id is 139 raw text is: THE DEFINITION OF A JEW UNDER ISRAEL'S LAW OF RETURN Yehuda Savir* A question not easily resolved is, What is the definition of a Jew? Do all of the religious sects in the world that claim to be Jews enjoy such a status? What about a person who is born as a Jew and later converts to another religion? The legal problem of defining who is considered to be a Jew arises because of the unique nature of the State of Israel. The difficulty is caused in part by the lack of clarity and certainty concerning the legal and extra-legal relationships between the Jewish religion and that State. For instance, although Israel makes no distinction between Jews and non-Jews with respect to internal administration, in the area of immigration and naturalization a Jew has a slight advantage over a non-Jew.' Thus, in that area, at least, a line of demarcation must be drawn. The necessity of making a legal distinction between a Jew and a non-Jew was recently forced upon the courts of Israel. A case arose involving a person who had been raised under the standards of the Jewish religion but who had converted to Catholicism.! Later, when a Carmelite Friar, he sought immediate citizenship rights in Israel as a Jew. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the decision in the case of Father Daniel, the converted Jew. Since the problem presented-that of legally defining the term Jew-may affect the rights of many people, it is hoped that the reader will realize the im- portance of that decision. I. BACKGROUND A. Lack Of A Legislative Definition Although the word Jew appears in many laws of the State of Israel, the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) has never defined the term in any of those enactments. This conspicuous silence has produced am- biguity and vagueness in legislative interpretation, since the term * Lecturer-in-Law, Southern Methodist University. Graduate of Hebrew Herzlia College, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Advocate, School of Law, Jerusalem; Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln's Inn, Lon- don; LL.M., Southern Methodist University; practicing attorney, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Teaching Fellow, School of Law, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Honorary Secretary, Israel (Tel-Aviv) Association for the United Nations. See footnotes 8-21 infra and accompanying text. 'The full text of the case has not yet been published in Hebrew or in English. Excerpts from the case which appear in the paper are taken from the reports in Lamerhav, Dec. 7, 1962, p. 10, and Time Magazine, Dec. 7, 1962, p. 54; Dec. 14, 1962, p. 60; Dec. 21, 1962, p. 11.

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