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date: 07 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter addresses the following questions: Who is a Jew to qualify for immediate citizenship under Israel's Law of Return? Who may be married or buried as a Jew? How can Israel be both a Jewish state and a democratic state open to non-Jews as well as Jews? What authority, if any, should classical Jewish law have in the Jewish state in contrast to laws legislated by the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) and precedents used by judges (based largely on British Common Law together with decisions of Israeli courts from 1948 on)? How should Israel respond to the Palestinians claiming to be refugees driven from their lands in 1948, and what should it do with the large Arab population living in the West Bank that Israel conquered in the 1967 war? Can it remain a Jewish state and also a democracy if it retains the West Bank and then, in the not-too-distant future, the majority of the population is no longer Jewish?

Keywords: Jews, citizenship, Law of Return, Jewish state, Jewish law

Reuven Hammer

Reuven Hammer received his rabbinic ordination and doctorate in theology from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as a Ph.D. in the field of special education from Northwestern University. After moving to Israel in the summer of 1973 he taught and worked for many years in the field of special education at the Hebrew University, David Yellin College, and other institutions and served as an advisor to the Ministry of Education. For eighteen years he was the Dean of the Israel programs of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Jerusalem and Professor of Rabbinic Literature. He was the founding director of the Institute for Jewish Studies, today the Schechter Institute. He has been a professor of Rabbinic Literature at Schechter and has also taught Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Oranim College, the Hebrew University Rothberg School, the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, and the Moscow State University of the Humanities. Two of his books, Sifre, A Taanaitic Commentary on Deuteronomy and Entering the High Holy Days, were awarded the National Jewish Book Council prize as the best book of scholarship for the year. He has also written The Jerusalem Anthology, Entering Jewish Prayer, The Classic Midrash and Or Hadash, a two-volume commentary on the prayerbook. His latest books are Entering Torah and The Torah Revolution: Fourteen Truths That Changed the World. He has also published numerous scholarly articles in the fields of Midrash and Liturgy in professional journals and various Jubilee volumes.

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