the ancient Hebrews of the biblical narrative are extinct, they are no more, they are a bygone race of people of the past and this is a physio-bio reality.

The only question is what kind of proof.

It implied in the article that no proof should be required other than the person's own statement.

and experience that was crucial for the Israeli "hi-tech miracle". This aliyah contributed significantly to the Israeli economy.

they also don't practice Judaism, or even believe in Elohim? In fact, according to Shulhan Aruch, Muslims R closer to Judaism than these pseudo Jews

That is disgusting that they have to go through that.

Technically everyone is Jewish. If the Jews are God's chosen people and you believe in the Bible that God created man and from man he created woman, and everyone descended from Adam and Eve, who the hell cares? Anyone who wants to be Jewish and immigrate to Israel and subject themselves to being drafted by the IDF, fighting for the survival Israel and giving their life, if they want to be Jewish that's fine in my book. These rabbis have too much control and they screw up Israel and a my opinion are root cause of anti-semitism

100% Jewish, but I am vehemently secular.
Somebody from Russia (or Timbuktu) may be "impure" but much more observant than me.
so...????
Besides: my kids &their kids do the army, the Israeli army!
Goddammit, enough with these cretins at the Rabinate.
Let them rule over those, that demand strict puritan watch over their religious beliefs, but at the same time make it equally easy for ANYONE to marry, live& die in this country, as long as they proclaim to be Israelis and have citizenship.

Even those from the US have to have harden proof of "Jewishness". I had to get a letter and a photo from the Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles where my grandmother is buried. So it is not only those from former Soviet countries.

cannot do it (family research, my Heritage, etc) because it is illegal in Israel

and Rabbanut accepts them. It is an invented problem.
I was born in Eastern Europe and I would not be offended.
Rabbis are just doing their job.

The absolutely devisive authority of the ultra orthodox rabbis to hold sway over the right to declare a marriage under the Jewish and state law of Israel is an anethema to common sense and the right of every citizen to be considered married by a stae secular arrangement or even within the Liberal/Reform auspices of Judaism without the constant devisiveness in the extreme of the intolerant ultra orthodox wing of Judaism. After all the requirement under the Law of Return has been satisfied, not an easy formality, so how dare the unDemocratic Rabbinate impose, albeit with the connivance of certain political party/s for selfish reasons to continue with the staus quo.

these rabbis think. They are no authority to me.

I have never been asked for anything by anybody? I knew that I should provide a copy of my parents Ketuvah. I produced a kosher copy and that's it. If you have nothing to hide, why make a fuss. I believe I am an oral surgeon- it does not make me one. I am still only a retired dentist.

who are the trouble makers. They made a cross, a police interrogation, a pedigree tree of you. If they find a goy in your tree, oy, oy, oy... everybody is goy and needs to convert. They want to certify who is and who is not a Jew. Tell the names and stop being hypocrites. This is CHABAD!

My wife and daughters were converted by a highly regarded orthodox rabbi in Wisconsin. But in order to have Israel recognize our marriage, we had to prove not the conversion, but that we had adapted an ultraorthodox lifestyle which I would not admit to. I am a Jew. That was never questioned somehow. But for that "court" of arrogant "religious Jews to determine my family was not was beyond the pale!

In the end, I brought my family to Israel to literally be told they are not Jewish, that their status in the land of the Jews is second class. Certainly not something that promotes a feeling of connectedness, of identity. and, one year later we were back in the US.

Orthodox does not define Jewish. Orthodoxy has no right above all other streams to judge for the secular state; any secular state.

Israel is either the state of the Jews according to Zionism, or it is an aberration, a miscarriage of Zionism itself. Jews are not a political football to achieve a narrow politically ideological coalition. Stop making Jews homeless!

The article is misleading in making you believe that only "Russian Speaking" immigrants are questioned by the Rabbinate. I am from the US and I was asked to provide proof. My parents Ketubah was not sufficient proof and I was asked to provide a Letter from a Rabbi that is on some type of approved list. I should also point out that my mothers family (parents, brothers and sisters) have been living in Israel since the inception of the State. That was also rejected as proof. Russian Speakers are not alone, all immigrants are examined.

DNA testing for Jews - sounds like neo-Nazism 4.0 or Fascism-as-Service (FaaS).

Where is this woman getting her information? Even the Jewish religion of today is mainly a derivative of the teachings of Deuteronomy, the Pharisees and the Talmud. Maybe 3,300 years?