It is just this sort of thinking that is actually driving Jews from their religion to become non practicing Jews. Can anyone in this day and age believe rabbis have any closer relationship to god that they themselves do and the only place one can be heard by god is in a snyagogue or next to a wall. Or that studying the Talmud all day makes one a good Jew. Don't believe it.

tricked the rabbis, give him credit there.

Who could have imagined the endless crowds chanting "Juifs au four" (Jews to the ovens) and the "HItler was right" posts online? Holocaust denial in Iran was one thing, but in the City of Light? Now the Chief Rabbinate in Eretz Israel (MY Eretz Israel, as I had thought when I discovered it in my anti-Semitism traumatised childhood) - he's denying the Holocaust too. The Holocaust that made me a Jew once I discovered the family secret. The Law of Return comforted me; I had a refuge. Only since my mother isn't Jewish, I'm to be rejected .even there? And MY children too? What's more, she was never a real mother (without love, who deserves the name?) No now, I'm orphaned - twice Jewish. "Hetzi-hetzi" and Neither-Nor.

I have heard Elazar Shtern speaking about his bill, and he is right – The strong objection to it from the top Rabbinical establishment, made up mostly of non-Zionist Hharedim, stems from their fear of losing some of the power they possess.

My father, z"l, used to have a wonderful comment about who is a Jew. He would say, don't worry about it; sooner or later, someone will tell you if you are a Jew. He was a Holocaust survivor; the sole survivor of a rather large family. My mother, too, was the sole survivor of an even larger family. Jews are members of a unique, very exclusive and special club. I don't want to share that exclusivity with goyim. They are NOT Jews. Let them make the best of what they are. They haven't paid the price. The Jewish people have. It's really all that simple.

And what if someone were to come along and decide that, as a Jew, you are not worthy of life. Think it can't happen? Didn't it already -- in what was allegedly the most cultured, civilized and sophisticated country in the world? It has nothing to do with one's concept of the divine. It has everything to do with being Jewish -- it isn't merely a religion; it's a way of life. And if one isn't born to it, one can never acquire it. The Jews are the chosen people. Everyone else is a sad second best. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. I'm not interested in attracting converts. Let them be content in their faith. Mine's rather an exclusive club. No non-Jews or dogs allowed.

all the strangers home.A simple jew.

It's the pope tricking the rabbis

The hard core Jews who have it all and want to keep everyone out will be punished by G-d. They flail their chests in false righteousness while Hashem takes their names for judgement day.

I am of Sephardic Jewish descent but my family was forced into conversion to Christianism by the Alhambra Decree back in 1492. For generations the family were crypto-jews or apparent Christians who continued to practice Judaism secretly. Somewhere down the line my family became separated from the faith and I was raised as a Roman Catholic. Since as far as I can remember the Christian faith made very little or no sense to me. As an adult I have become an agnostic, but having extensively studied all major religions I believe the one that makes the most sense is, indeed, Judaism. It preaches that righteous men can reach salvation and paradise regardless of what faith they were born into. I firmly believe this to be a crucial principle since most people's religions are just a geographical accident. If you're born in Spain as I was or in Portugal or Italy chances are you'll be a Catholic 95% of the time. If you happened to be born in Mecca, Rabat or Baghdad you will most probably be a Muslim. And once you're born into any faith it's extremely unlikely you will ever switch. Most major religions aggresively pursue increasing their numbers. Christianism forced conversion under penalty of imprisonment or death until the Holy Inquisition (talk about an oxymoronic name!) was abolished in the 1830s. Extremist Islam, to this day, views any non-muslims as infidels who have to either convert or die. I never understood how any intelligent human being can think that faith can be imposed. It's very clear that having or not having faith can never be our choice: no matter how hard we try there's no way we can convince ourselves to believe in something that simply doesn't make much (or any) sense in our minds. Judaism, on the contrary, not only has never embarked in any kind of proselytism but in fact makes it very hard to convert. When I considered converting I was quickly discouraged by the compulsory circumcision. As much as I respect rite and tradition I have a hard time understanding from a logical point of view how the presence or absence of my foreskin could have any bearing on whether I would be a good Jew or not. The Jewish people have been unjustly persecuted for over 2,000 years and this insane hatred against them continues today. Compared to the massive numbers of Christians (2.2 billion) and Muslims (over 1 billion), the 14 million total Jews in the whole planet pales in comparison. The Jewish people and the State of Israel need all the support they can get. Anyone who wants to live, work and be productive by moving to Israel who be a great addition to the Jewish cause regardless of whether they are truly Jewish (by religious definition) or not. Refusing people that love Israel for any reason is, simply, not smart. My native country Spain is about to pass a law that would grant all descendants of Jews expelled form Spain since 1492 (forget about the three generation limit!) automatic Spanish citizenship. This equals European citizenship and comes with no strings attached: the new citizen need not renounce their current nationality nor do they have to move to Spain. I would find it pathetic that a non-jewish state would grant citizenship to any descendant of Jews from 500 plus years ago faster and with more eases than the only Jewish State in the world. So for the good of the Jewish people and the furthering of the Jewish cause I wish Israel will not shut the door on anyone who loves the country to the point they're willing to move there. Orthodox purity should not be the main concern right now, much less a barrier to block Jewish loving people whether they, themselves, are Jewish or not.

The various parties want to artifically boost the Jewish population through phoney conversions. The left want paper Jews to help secularize the country and Bennet want it so he can say we can give all the pals citizenship and still have a Jewish majority so a single state will work. The politicians are taking the LOR and removing its credibility & even the legitimacy of the Jewish state concept.

This bill is designed to change the LOTR into a tool that can be used for political gain which delegitimises LOTR itself. The left want phoney conversions because it creates large numbers of people who are Jewish on paper only to secularise society. Bennet needs paper Jews because he wants a single state and this way he can argue the Jewish majority is safe if we give all the pals Israeli citizenship.

You can argue the LOR is racist but all countries have the right to set immigration policies even if it is based on religion, The LOR isn't denying non Jews their rights. What should be done is allow non Jews to REQUEST citizenship and live as non Jews rather than have to go through a phoney conversion but the reason2 is the politicians want to use the LOR as a political tool so they are doing it this way

Allowing these phoney conversions is for idealist politics.The left wants more non Jews to secularise the country more so solution is allow phoney conversions to get them into the country legally but they are jewish on paper only. Bennet wants paper Jews because he wants a single state so if the statistics say Jewish population is increasing he can argue no worry about loosing the Jewish majority if we give the pals citizenship.

This bill is to allow phoney conversions so the LOR can be politicised. The left want these non Jews to convert because they won't keep any rules and they will instead work to secularise the country. There is Bennet he wants these phoney conversions because he wants a single state solution so he wants to be able to argue look the Jewish pollution is growing so no need to worry about the Jewish majority if we give all the pals citizenship. Politics is the only motive for all this.

The tyranny is overwhelming, the ultras have Israel's Jews by the religious throat. democracy must rule over the ritualists of the 7th cantury.

Paper conversions for the purpose of statistics to increase the Jewish majority undermines the whole point of the LOR. The LOR is there to let Jews move to Israel and that means real Jews not artificially created Jews for statistical purposes. This is actually worrying because the LOR is a Basic Law which is the closet Israel has to a constitution and politicians are stealthily manipulating them for political gain and if the LOR can be manipulated so can other Basic Laws

we welcome OUR FAMILY and the 70 Nations

Why is Ynet allowing publishing comments like no36?

I was told by a Soviet Jewish Space Engineer who immigrated to the US from Israel that 33 percent of the immigrants from the Soviet Union to Israel were not Jews and even not circumcised. Few of them were circumcised just few days before boarding the plane and many of them had infections. Does Sarah B. knows anything about this story.

#31 is right and that is the reason why the world Jewish population does not exceed 12 to 12.5 million. Many of them converted to Christians which means Super Jewish. I know two Jewish teachers who returned to Tel Aviv from New York converted to become Christians.

How I know it ? because The Law of Return does not stipulate its beneficiaries to be circumcised.

Nothing would be better for all humanity than for the Jews/Israelis to intermingle with us goyim. Face it , Orthodox Judaism as a dead end religion and Jewishness as a racialist tribe are headed to a self-induced, intellectual, moral and cultural extinction. The path your culture and nation has taken dooms the Jewish people to a spiritual holocaust.

I always thought jewish law is defined by--jewish law-the Halacha not by nazis y"s. Only the jews who want to destroy judaism will use such a "source". Nobody is denied conversion, but it shuld be done under the law. I would think a gift you didn't earn is not appreciated, just look at reform in us only 6% non jewish mothers raise children as jews

The club of ignorant bigotry derived from uninformed pseudo-Halakha is actually QUITE large. Enjoy the company of your non-Jewish souled confreres. Blekh! :p

As long as Jews read talkbacks like yours, they don't have to worry. It is obvious that to such cognitive condition as displayed in this post they cannot deteriorate.

Another guy who thinks he receive faxes from the Almighty and still leave in the darkness of the Middle Age. A Jewish Humeini