The comments from William Daroff, head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, marked a stark departure from his traditional reluctance to comment critically on Israeli decision-making, illustrating the level of concern in the Diaspora over plans by allies of prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to limit who can immigrate to Israel and reform other matters of religion and state .
Speaking on a panel at a conference on Israeli-US ties, Daroff stressed that he was loath to criticize the government, joking that the session was “out of time” when asked about the nascent coalition, but made an exception to address the religious parties’ demand to remove the so-called “grandchild clause” from the Law of Return.
That clause allows guarantees citizenship for anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, so long as they do not practice another religion.
“The Law of Return is a bedrock of Zionism. Our forbearers took the Nuremberg laws and said if one grandparent was enough to kill you, it’s enough to let you in,” Daroff said, referencing a commonly held, but false, belief that the clause is based on the Nazi definition of who fell under Germany’s anti-Jewish laws. READ MORE
