Summary
The Shalit case (petition filed winter 1968), in Lahav’s account (Chapter 12): the “Who Is a Jew” case, in which a nine-justice panel held 5–4 that Benjamin Shalit’s children could be registered as Jewish by nationality on a subjective, sincere-belief test, with Simon Agranat dissenting on a historical, religio-national argument while proposing the “nationality” designation be dropped altogether (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2272-2551).
Details
- The registry listed “religion” and “nationality” in separate columns — a bifurcation Lahav traces more to the security wish to tell Arab from Jew than to defining Jews; the entry carried no citizenship or marriage consequences (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2353-2440).
- Haim Cohn applied the subjective test with formalistic reasoning; Silberg the objective, halakhic test with passionate reasoning, holding that disconnecting Jewish nationality from its religious foundations “strikes at the heart of our political claim to the land of Israel [Erets Yisrael]” (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2353-2500).
- Agranat first publicly proposed that the government legislate the “nationality” designation away; the government rejected the proposal within three days, and Agranat, unable to write and deprived of the first opinion, finally concluded no branch of government could determine the question — only society, in due course, could (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2353-2551).
- His dissent defined the Jewish people as a religio-nation — “Torah and Israel Are One and the Same” — treated the halakhic ban on interfaith marriage as a survival instrument, and cited American Jewry’s loyalty to the halakhic definition against splitting world Jewry, while also stating the modern approach: the present generation “is free to behave in accordance with its own world view and in keeping with developing new needs” (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2441-2551).
- Aftermath: the chief rabbinate issued an isur torah against registering the halakhically non-Jewish; after six days of negotiation the cabinet agreed a non-retroactive amendment writing the halakhic definition into law; the Shalit children remained the only halakhically non-Jewish Israelis ever registered as Jews (Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, lines 2500-2551).
Related pages
Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century, Benjamin Shalit, Simon Agranat, Haim Cohn, Process Jurisprudence