There is no question that Artem Dolgopyat is a national hero. To bring home a gold medal from the Olympic Games in Tokyo is a tremendous achievement, of which not only he, but the entire country can be very proud. We look forward to his return and the celebration for him and the other medal winners.
Artem belongs to the large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, for whose release to move to Israel under the Law of Return (enacted in 1950), Jews worldwide campaigned.
That law grants every Jew wherever he may be, the right to immigrate to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. For the purposes of this Law, “Jew” means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or who has converted to Judaism and is not a member of another religion.
In 1970, the law was amended to grant the right of return to anyone with one Jewish grandfather whether matrilineal or patrilineal and regardless of their own belief, as well as to their non-Jewish married spouses. This controversial change was based on the Nuremberg laws enacted by the Nazis in 1935 which determined that a person with even one Jewish grandfather is a Jew, with the prescribed consequences including the cancellation of citizenship and withdrawal of certain rights.
It is scandalous that Jewish law of immigration should be based on Nazi doctrine without even definitive proof. Applications for immigration by non-halachic “Jews” should be considered on an individual basis rather than given a blanket dispensation.
In the late 1980s when the government of Mikhail Gorbachev opened the borders of the USSR and allowed Jews to leave the country, nearly one million Soviet Jews and their non-Jewish relatives and spouses immigrated to Israel between 1989 and 2006.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 26% of those immigrants were not considered Jewish by Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law.
That created great difficulties with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which by the law of 1980 is recognized as the only rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel with sole control over the regulations of marriage, so that only approved religious leaders can perform marriage. Israeli law does not permit civil marriages.
On the express pronouncement of his mother, Artem Dolgopyat is not Jewish, because she is not Jewish. Now our Olympic hero wants to marry but finds no sympathy in Israel’s laws.
Because of the high profile gained by his Olympic achievement, the powers of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate are again being questioned; not as you might think by the protagonist himself who is adversely affected by the law, no, he keeps a low profile as if reluctantly accepting the situation. The movement to change the law is stirred by the high school dropout Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid head), whose knowledge of Halacha, religious law, fits onto a small postage stamp.
In order for a Jewish wedding in Israel to be recognized by the State, it must be carried out under the auspices of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. The Chief Rabbinate operates according to Orthodox Halacha (Jewish law), which specifies various requirements and prohibitions regarding marriage. Civil marriages performed outside of Israel are recognized for purposes of national statistics, but not personal status. Similarly, “common law” marriages afford couples some marriage-related rights and protections, but not full recognition.
According to reports, Lapid said that “it is intolerable that someone can fight on our behalf in the Olympics… win a gold medal and not get married in Israel.” No, Minister, it is arrogant and disdainful to equate even a great achievement in sport with our age-old Torah laws. As MK Arye Deri (Shas) said: ”Winning a medal, doesn’t make him Jewish.”
Aided by this post-Zionist government, there are dark forces at work, that are aiming to transform the only Jewish State – finally established after 2000 years of trying – into a “Country for Jews” based on tribalist traditions.
The founding of a private organization to rival the Chief Rabbinate for all its functions, including establishing questionable Jewish roots to enable marriage is the beginning of the loss of the Jewish identity of our beloved Jewish state. It is the thin end of the wedge.
The writer, at 97, holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s oldest active journalist and oldest working radio talk show host. He presents Walter’s World on Israel National Radio (Arutz 7) and The Walter Bingham File on Israel Newstalk Radio. Both are in English.