The Supreme Court ruled today for the first time that an Israeli citizen may delete Jewish nationality from his identity card. The ruling, by a three-man bench, culminated a 17-year legal battle during which Yeshaya Schick, secretary of a kibbutz youth village, sought to erase his Jewish nationality on grounds that he is “cosmopolitan.”
A district court had ruled previously that while Schick could refuse to be classified as Jewish by religion he could not deny his Jewishness under the nationality rubric. The Supreme Court held, however, that there was no distinction.
The decision, rendered by Justice Zvi Berinson and concurred in by the other two justices, stated that both religion and nationality “are subject to a man’s heart, faith and personal philosophy.” The ruling is expected to reopen a bitter controversy that died down after the Shalit case was resolved by the Supreme Court. In the Shalit case, the court allowed children born of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother to be registered as Jewish by nationality.
Interior Ministry officials told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that they were studying the ruling and would issue a formal reaction later on. Other Israelis are now expected to apply for deletion of nationality in the wake of the Schick case decision.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
