Most Israelis who become Germans don't lose citizenship

Only Israelis who have no direct German ancestry and still wish to receive German citizenship after residing in Germany are forced to revoke their Israeli citizenship.

By AARON MAGID
Most Israelis who have received German citizenship have not had to renounce their Israeli citizenship, as was incorrectly reported in Wednesday's Jerusalem Post.
Only those Israelis who have no direct German ancestry and still wish to receive German citizenship after residing in Germany are forced to revoke their Israeli citizenship, similar to other nationals.
Descendants of German nationals are eligible to have their citizenship "restored" based on Article 116 (2) of the German Constitution. The restoration policy also applies to those whose ancestors had their citizenship revoked by the Nuremberg Laws during the Nazi era.
Most Israelis who have applied for German citizenship fall into the restoration category, and therefore are not required to give up their Israeli citizenship.Yariv Bernstein and his family received German citizenship. He said it was a "ticket into both Europe and the United States without a visa."Yariv has also found it easier to travel within the Palestinian Authority using a German passport. The European Union passport gave him the opportunity to live and study in Europe much cheaper than if he only had his Israeli passport. The one caveat, he said, was that the German Embassy in Tel Aviv warned him he would need the approval of the German government if he wished to extend his mandatory army service past three years.
When Yariv finally received his German citizenship, his mother warned him not to tell his grandfather, whose entire family was killed by the Nazis. Nevertheless, acquiring German citizenship did not concern Yariv, since it was "very helpful."
But Shirley Zauer, a child of Holocaust survivors, said she had no interest in receiving German citizenship.
"I would regard it as greatly disrespectful to my parents' memory to seek German citizenship," she said.
Despite the moves toward reconciliation, Zauer still has strong negative feelings about Germany and would never consider "restoring" citizenship. She said she understood the financial motives of Israelis wanting German citizenship, but was disappointed that so many of them want to pursue it.
More than 4,300 Israeli citizens received German citizenship in 2006, up 50 percent from the previous year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.