Why can pedophiles make aliyah but not a reformed Black convict?
If Israel can provide asylum to pedophiles and other criminals just because they happen to be Jewish, it can grant citizenship to a convert who happens to be a Black man with a criminal past.
By JPOST EDITORIALDavid Ben Moshe together with his wife and child(photo credit: COURTESY DAVID BEN MOSHE)
It is untenable that Israel, which was established in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish people, is refusing to grant citizenship to David Ben Moshe, 33, an Orthodox convert from Maryland who lives with his wife and baby daughter in Motza, near Jerusalem.As Jewish World correspondent Jeremy Sharon reported in The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Ben Moshe has a criminal past in Baltimore’s notorious drug gangs, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2010 on drug and firearms charges.It was while in prison that he discovered Judaism. After his release in 2012, he turned his life around, converted and married under Orthodox law in Israel, and applied for citizenship under the Law of Return two and a half years ago. Since then, he told the Post, he has experienced a nightmarish bureaucratic struggle in his effort to become a citizen of the Jewish state.Ben Moshe, who is Black, is a personal trainer who received a Masa grant to come to Israel and won a social justice fellowship from Pardes. While in Israel, he has engaged in social justice activities, including providing exercise training for special needs children.He lamented that the Jewish principle of teshuva is not recognized in the Jewish state.“The worst thing about this situation is what it is doing to my wife and daughter,” he said. “I have lived my entire life knowing I could never expect to be treated equally – that is the sad reality. But bringing someone else into that feels like I have done a terrible wrong.”Ben Moshe participates in daily prayer services, has been an active member of his synagogues – first in Beit Zayit and then in Motza – and is a much loved and respected member of his community, as testified by four rabbis who wrote letters to the Interior Ministry on his behalf.Yet the State of Israel continues to deny Ben Moshe the right to citizenship, something that has hurt him and his wife deeply on an emotional level, caused heavy financial burdens, and made everyday life extremely difficult. Last week, instead of acknowledging his status as someone married to an Israeli, the Interior Ministry extended his B1 visa for another 12 months, leaving him with the same problems as before. The Population and Immigration Authority said, “The applicant has a criminal history and the reason that he has only been given a residency permit stems from these reasons and no other ones.”This is a ridiculous claim. Has the Population and Immigration Authority bothered to look who is the interior minister in Israel? It is Arye Deri, a convicted criminal who sat in jail for bribery. So Deri can get out of jail and return to the scene of the crime – the Interior Ministry – but Ben Moshe cannot become Israeli?Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of the Jewish life advocacy organization Itim, said Ben Moshe was “a victim of institutionalized discrimination against converts,” and that his conversion and commitment to Judaism fit all the criteria that the State of Israel puts forward to gain citizenship.Married to a citizen of Israel, and the father of a citizen of Israel, Ben Moshe should be accepted and embraced as a citizen of Israel.If Israel can provide asylum to pedophiles and other criminals just because they happen to be Jewish, it certainly can grant citizenship to a convert who happens to be a Black man with a criminal past he has put behind him.The Knesset passed the Law of Return in 1950, beginning with a few simple words that defined Israel’s central purpose: “Every Jew has the right to come to this country.” It amended the law five years later to specify that dangerous criminals could be denied that right.David Ben Moshe though is not a dangerous criminal. He has served time, done teshuva and jumped all the necessary hurdles to be recognized as an upright member of his community and a Jew under the Law of Return. We urge the government to expedite this matter and grant him citizenship as soon as possible. He has every right to be an Israeli.
