Law, Religion, and Immigration: Building Bridges with Express Lanes

Throughout the world, the right to culture established the right for a national group to establish a nation-state. In Israel, this right establishes another right for Jewish people to immigrate to Israel, based in part on the right to self-determination. In recent history, this right applies not only to Jews by birth but also to anyone who converts to Judaism or has Jewish family ties. As a result, there have been proposals in Israel to curb this automatic right of immigration because, as the argument goes, immigration of this kind may weaken the dominance of Jewish culture in Israel.

This Article addresses the history of the Law of Return, outlines some arguments for amending it, and introduces proposals for amending the current Law.