Brother Daniel, the Jewish-born, Catholic Carmelite monk who sought Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, but was rebuffed last year by the Israel Supreme Court, has been granted Israeli citizenship through ordinary naturalization procedures, the Interior Ministry announced here yesterday.
A spokesman for the Ministry said the monk became a citizen because he fulfilled the conditions for naturalization incumbent upon non-Jews under the citizenship law. The Polish born monk, whose original name was Oswald Rufeisen, became a Roman Catholic during the Second World War, while hiding from the Nazis in a nunnery.
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