התמודדותם של עולי חבר העמים עם ההליך לבירור היהדות

This article deals with inquiries conducted by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate courts regarding the Jewishness of immigrants from the CIS. Most of the immigrants are secular who define their Jewish identity in terms of blood relations, domestic traditions,and antisemitic experiences in the former U.S.S.R. (Remennick, 2003). They are summoned to the Rabbinical Courts to prove their Jewishness interms of JewishReligi ous law. All of the rabbinical judges belong to the Ultra-Orthodox community and see themselves as true representatives of the Jewish tradition. The result of these inquiries is that the secular immigrants must make their claims in language defined by the Rabbinical Courts, but that does not correspond to the reality of their culture (Lyotard, 1988) .In this study, interviews were conducted with fourteen immigrants who underwent the inquiry by the Chief Rabbinate. The interviews included questions regarding their Jewish identity, immigration,and the ways they were affected by the inquiry. The findings show that the immigrants perceive their identity as based on ethnicity, rather than on religion. Their immigration was initiated for instrumental or personal reasons. Nevertheless, the choice to undergo the inquiry comes from the desire to belong to the Jewish community and from a sense of affinity with Israel. Neither their immigration, nor their decision to undergo the inquiry process were spurred by religious motivations. The procedure in the Chief Rabbinate's courts reveals a clash between two sorts of claims regarding the definition of Judaism. Some immigrants report a sense of anxiety prior to procedure and humiliation during the inquiry.