CITIZENSHIP & THE LAW OF RETURN
The Law of Return is an Israeli law, passed on July 5, 1950, which gives Jews everywhere the right to come and live in Israel.
After what happened in Europe in 1930 to 1945, where Jews were trapped in Germany, Poland, France, Russia, and other countries, and had no place to go to except concentration camps and be killed, the Law of Return stopped that from ever happening again. It could be stated that if there was a state of Israel before WW II, there might not have been a holocaust.
In 1970, the right of entry and settlement was extended to people with one Jewish grandparent, or a person who is married to a Jew, whether or not he or she is considered Jewish under Orthodox interpretations. The rights of a Jew under this Law are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew (except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his/her religion.)
Hundreds of thousands of people who do not have Jewish status under Orthodox Jewish interpretations of Halacha received Israeli citizenship, as the law confers citizenship to all offspring of a Jew (including grandchildren) and their spouses.
Please keep in mind that under the above definitions of a Jew under the Law of Return, a Jew cannot be turned away from living in Israel, but there may other reasons to deny citizenship. Please see Wikipedia and other sources for an excellent discussion of The Law of Return and Israeli Citizenship.
Section 1 states:
“Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh [immigrant].”
On this website, we are primarily interested in the right for Jews to seek a permanent safe haven in Israel, which may or may not include citizenship.
David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, asserted: “This law does not provide for the State to bestow the right to settle upon the Jew living abroad; it affirms that this right is inherent in him from the very fact of being a Jew; the State does not grant the right of return to the Jews of the diaspora. This right preceded the State; this right to build the State; its source is to be found in the historic and never broken connection between the Jewish people and the homeland.”