(Jewish Group) Israel rejects Ugandan Jew's application for citizenship again, despite court ruling

Israel rejects Ugandan Jew’s application for citizenship again, despite court ruling recognizing non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel


Women and children carry Torah scrolls from an old synagogue building to a new building in Nabagoye, Uganda. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)

Israel’s Ministry of Interior denied an application for citizenship from a Ugandan convert to Judaism again, despite a ruling earlier this year recognizing non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel, according to Haaretz.

Kibita Yosef, who has been living in Israel since 2017, first applied for citizenship under the Law of Return and was rejected in 2018. Under Israel’s Law of Return, all Jews, including those who have converted to Judaism under the auspices of “recognized Jewish communities,” are eligible for Israeli citizenship. Responding earlier this year to Yosef’s appeal of the decision to the Supreme Court, Israel’s Interior Ministry indicated that it did not see the Abayudaya community in Uganda as a “recognized Jewish community” and thus its members would not be eligible under the Law of Return.

His second application, submitted in June after undergoing another conversion overseen by a Conservative religious court in Israel, was intended to test a March decision by the Israeli Supreme Court that required the government to recognize Reform and Conservative conversions performed in Israel for the purposes of immigration.

But on Monday, Israel’s Interior Ministry denied Yosef’s request on the grounds that he was not made to undergo the extensive study typically required before conversion. That requirement had been waived for Yosef by the Conservative religious court that oversaw the conversion because he had already undergone previous conversions and completed significant study ahead of those conversions.

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This is some kind of STUPID! This is what happens, though, when the ultra-version of any religion takes over or has more power than it should.

From earlier this year: Conservative Jewish leaders condemn Israel’s rejection of Ugandan Jews from immigrating