# Does Israel practice religious apartheid?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-practice-religious-apartheid/370987>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 31, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-practice-religious-apartheid/370987 "2006-08-31T21:25:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-practice-religious-apartheid/370987/41 "2006-09-12T21:26:27Z")

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[QUOTE=guppy]  
[Hijack] The daughter, who was raised Jewish, tried to immigrate to Israel but was not let in. [End hijack]  
[/QUOTE]

It may be a conversion issue. I converted to Conservative Judaism, and the Orthodox guys who run the joint probably wouldn’t consider me Jewish. ;j  
If they didn’t consider the Mother to be a “real” Jew, they wouldn’t believe the daughter to be, either.

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**Author:** ![Puzzler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d07c76/32.png) [@Puzzler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzler)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-practice-religious-apartheid/370987/42 "2006-09-12T21:43:54Z")

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[QUOTE=guppy]  
[Hijack] My sister had a friend (I never met this person and only vaguely remember the details) whose father was Jewish and mother never converted to Judaism. The daughter, who was raised Jewish, tried to immigrate to Israel but was not let in. This always seemed odd to me. Does it ring true?  
Also, my grandmother was Jewish; can I immigrate as the agnostic son of Catholics? [End hijack]  
[/QUOTE]

Quite reasonable. The law of return defines Judaism through the mother. See [here](http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2001/8/Acquisition%20of%20Israeli%20Nationality)

> [@](#):
>
> For the purposes of this Law, “Jew” means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has converted to Judaism and is not a member of another religion

Which means that if it was your grandmother from your mother’s side, according to the Jewish laws you are a Jew, and may immigrate to Israel. Welcome Brother! 😉

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