A government-appointed committee has recommended that Israel create a new status for individuals who have Jewish roots but are not eligible to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return. The Diaspora Affairs Ministry had tasked the committee with outlining recommendations on how Israel should relate to individuals who have a strong connection to the Jewish people or Judaism but do not qualify as Jewish under the Halachah, the i24 news website reported Sunday. According to the report, those qualifying for the new status include tens of thousands of Poles with Jewish roots, descendants of Jews who forcibly converted during the Spanish Inquisition; members of communities who claim to be descendants of the "lost tribes," such as India's Bnei Menashe community, and members of so-called "emerging Jewish communities" that have recently begun adopting Jewish practices, which can be found in South America, Africa and Papua New Guinea. The new status would allow such individuals who arrive in Israel to remain in the country longer than the three months permitted under a tourist visa, so as to afford them the opportunity to further explore their Jewish heritage. The Law of Return, enacted in 1950, grants Israeli citizenship only to individuals who have a Jewish spouse, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, or grandparent-in-law, or who converted to Judaism according to Jewish law. Should the recommendations to form a new status be accepted, they could potentially benefit millions of people worldwide. The committee, headed by historian and political theorist Ofir Haivry, stopped short of recommending changes in the Law of Return, but recommended that the government formulate criteria that determine which communities with connections to the Jewish people are eligible for immigration.
