I do hope that if Israel were really needed as a refuge, they'd go back to the original founding principles and just say that anyone with one Jewish grandparent can come, and they're not going to expect extensive notarized documentation from people fleeing genocide. AKA the 'if Hitler counts you as Jewish enough to send you to the Camps, we count you as Jewish enough to be an Israeli citizen' policy. However, looking at recent Israeli history, they haven't yet turned anyone away, but groups like the Ethiopian community, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who genuinely did come to Israel from pretty bad situations, have had a pretty hard time being fully accepted as Jewish Israelis.
And yes, there most certainly are efforts to change Israeli policies, both internally within Israel and lobbying from the worldwide community. A lot of secular Israelis don't exactly love the Rabbinate either, and there is starting to be a non-Orthodox but religiously committed presence in Israel too. I don't want to pontificate about Israel too much though, because I only really have an outsider's vague impressions of how religion and politics work there.
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Date: 2013-05-11 09:30 pm (UTC)I do hope that if Israel were really needed as a refuge, they'd go back to the original founding principles and just say that anyone with one Jewish grandparent can come, and they're not going to expect extensive notarized documentation from people fleeing genocide. AKA the 'if Hitler counts you as Jewish enough to send you to the Camps, we count you as Jewish enough to be an Israeli citizen' policy. However, looking at recent Israeli history, they haven't yet turned anyone away, but groups like the Ethiopian community, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who genuinely did come to Israel from pretty bad situations, have had a pretty hard time being fully accepted as Jewish Israelis.
And yes, there most certainly are efforts to change Israeli policies, both internally within Israel and lobbying from the worldwide community. A lot of secular Israelis don't exactly love the Rabbinate either, and there is starting to be a non-Orthodox but religiously committed presence in Israel too. I don't want to pontificate about Israel too much though, because I only really have an outsider's vague impressions of how religion and politics work there.