Ben-Gurion, the Law of Return, and the Question of Jewish Status in 1958

David Ben-Gurion

1958

Jerusalem

27 October 1958

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I am writing in the wake of a decision taken by the Government of Israel on 15 July 1958 which provides for the establishment of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, Minister of Justice, and Minister of the Interior, to examine the regulations regarding the registration of children of mixed marriages both of…

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In the modern era, emancipation and secularization fractured Jewish identity, creating new definitions of belonging. The founding of Israel made these boundaries a political issue. In 1958, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion faced controversy over whether children of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother could be registered as Jewish in the civil registry. Seeking compromise, he consulted fifty thinkers worldwide, drawn largely from the Ashkenazi intellectual elite. The debate exposed a core dilemma: should Jewish law define nationality and citizenship, or could being “Jewish” exist beyond religion? The 1970 law favored rabbinic definitions, but tensions remain unresolved.

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Creator Bio

David Ben-Gurion

1886–1973

Labor Zionist David Ben-Gurion was the dominant political figure in the Yishuv (the Jewish settlement in pre-state Israel) during the 1930s and 1940s and in the State of Israel for its first two decades. Born David Grin in Płońsk (now part of Poland) to a Zionist family—his father was very active in the proto-Zionist organization Ḥoveve Zion (“Lovers of Zion”)—he attended traditional and reformed heders, and by age fourteen he was teaching Hebrew as part of Ezra, the Zionist youth club he cofounded in 1899/1900. In 1904, Ben-Gurion moved to Warsaw and became active in the Po‘ale Zion (“Workers of Zion”) movement, often organizing against the Jewish socialist Bund. He immigrated to Palestine in 1906 and found work as a teacher, farmer, and contributor to Ha-Aḥdut. He changed his name to Ben-Gurion in 1910. As he became more central to Zionist leadership in Palestine, he came to privilege the nationalist side of his political outlook while his Marxist socialism became increasingly moderate. Ben-Gurion was instrumental in forging the political power of the organized labor movement and in making Mapai the main political party in the Yishuv. He served as the Histadrut’s secretary general (1921–1935) and as chair of the Jewish Agency (1935–1948) before his election as the first prime minister of the new State of Israel in 1948. He held that office from 1948 to 1953 and from 1955 to 1963.