Are Christian Zionists more Jewish than Liberal Anti-Israel Jews?

By: Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz – Israel 365 News; israel365news.com

I occasionally write op-eds in response to opinions I disagree with, but this is the first time I have written because I so strongly agree with an opinion that I could not remain silent. My dear friend and colleague, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, published an editorial in Israel365 News titled, “Who is considered a Jew after Oct. 7?.” I encourage everyone to read it, Jew and non-Jew alike. It marks a watershed stage in Jewish history.

This requires a lengthy explanation. Before World War Two, being a Jew was stigmatized, and no one would admit to being a Jew unless he really were a Jew. Conversion into Judaism was unheard of, dangerous, and illegal in most countries. Anyone who claimed to be a Jew was taken at his word. We had truly become, as Balaam predicted, “the nation that dwells alone, and not reckoned among the nations.”

But, as Israel modernized and became a wonderful place to live, the Israeli government was suddenly faced with the dilemma of determining who could come and live in the ancestral homeland. At first, the Law of Return gave Jews the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. The definition of a Jew was based on the Nazi definition, applying to people with one or more Jewish grandparents and their spouses. Halacha (Jewish law) was even more straightforward, based on the binary principle that anyone with a Jewish mother was Jewish. No definition of who is a Jew considered any beliefs or actions. We were a people bound by blood.

The Halachic definition has not changed, but the legal definition has faced challenges. In his article, Rabbi Wolicki referred to the case of Brother Oswald (Daniel) Rufeisen. He was born and raised as a Polish Jew but converted to Catholicism after the Nazi invasion of his homeland. He moved to Israel in 1959, seeking Israeli citizenship under the Israeli Law of Return, but was refused. Ironically, it was the secular Israeli government that added an element of religion to the definition of a Jew, turning Brother Daniel away because he had accepted another faith.

cont’d…