Israel Expands Law of Return to Include Interfaith Gay Couples
Non-Jews can now make aliyah with their Jewish, same-sex spouses
By Tal Kra-Oz | August 13, 2014 12:45 PM
The intersection of Religion and State in Israel often seems permanently mired in the status quo. However untenable that status quo may seem, it usually will not budge without severe prodding. But sometimes—as in the decades-long effort to have the state recognize civil unions—even such prodding bears little fruit. That’s why a decision announced yesterday by Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar came as something of a surprise: In a letter to the Population and Immigration Authority, Sa’ar ordered that the granting of citizenship to the non-Jewish spouses of women and men who are themselves eligible for aliyah to Israel would also apply to same-sex couples.
Aliyah—immigration to the Jewish State—is governed by the Law of Return. Enacted in 1950, it is the gateway to Israeli citizenship. Though its original scope was exclusively limited to Jews, since 1970 the law has been expanded to grant aliyah rights to all children and grandchildren of Jews (implicitly eschewing the traditional stance that Judaism is matrilineal—that is, conferred only by Jewish mothers, rather than fathers), and to the spouses (or partners) of Jews.
For more than 40 years, Jewish men and women have been making aliyah with their gentile wives and husbands. Until this week, however, government policy interpreted the law as if it referred only to straight couples. It is worth noting that the drafters of the 1970 version of the law neglected to clarify whether the law was limited to heterosexual couples—most assuredly because in Golda Meir’s Israel, the possibility of gay marriage did not occur to even the most liberal of Knesset members.
Cut to 44 years later. Though it stops short of actually facilitating gay marriage on its own turf, Israel recognizes such unions that were conducted abroad, and offers same-sex couples the vast majority of the benefits it affords any other couple. The body of rights afforded to members of the LGBT community has managed to grow steadily mostly without attracting the ire of the ultra-Orthodox in large part because it is limited to the civil sphere. Marriage is off the table—just as it is not an option for any Jew who wishes to marry a “non-halachic” Jew, though ostensibly all are equal citizens, Jewish enough for the Law of Return but not for the State rabbinate, which holds complete control over marriage and divorce conducted within Israel.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/182133/israel-expands-law-of-return-to-include-interfaith-gay-couples