## Facts

- Shmuel Oswald Rufeisen was born to a Jewish family in Poland and was active in a Zionist youth movement.
- During World War II, he saved many Jews by using a non-Jewish identity while working as an interpreter for local authorities and assisting escapes from a ghetto.
- While in hiding in a convent, he converted to Christianity, was baptized, and later became a Carmelite friar and Catholic priest (known as Brother/Father Daniel).
- In 1959, he sought entry to Israel as an oleh under § 1 of the Law of Return, which granted every Jew the right to immigrate but did not define “Jew.”
- The Minister of the Interior denied an oleh certificate, concluding that by adopting Christianity and joining Catholic clergy, Rufeisen was not a “Jew” for purposes of the Law of Return.
- Rufeisen filed an original petition in the High Court of Justice seeking judicial review and an order requiring recognition of eligibility under the Law of Return.

## Issues

1. Whether “Jew” in § 1 of the Law of Return includes a person born Jewish who voluntarily converted to Christianity and serves as Catholic clergy.
2. Whether the statute’s term “Jew” should be construed by halakhic criteria, ethnic/national belonging, or secular public meaning and legislative purpose.
3. How legislative intent and prevailing social understanding should guide interpretation where the statute supplies no definition.

## Decision

- The court denied the petition by a 4–1 vote and upheld the Minister’s refusal to issue an oleh certificate.
- The majority held that a person born Jewish who voluntarily becomes a member of another religion is not a “Jew” under the Law of Return.
- The court treated the question as one of statutory meaning and legislative intent, not theology, and declined to compel a broader rule covering all persons of Jewish descent regardless of present religious affiliation.
- A dissent would have read “Jew” more inclusively, emphasizing Jewish origin and self-identification and warning against state use of religious affiliation as an exclusionary criterion.

## Legal Principles

- Where a statute uses an undefined identity term, courts may construe it by legislative purpose and the common public meaning at enactment.
- Under the Law of Return as interpreted, Jewish birth alone is insufficient when the applicant has affirmatively joined another religion; present religious membership may disqualify eligibility for automatic immigration rights.
- The Law of Return was construed as serving the national project of providing a home for the Jewish people as a living community, which the majority concluded excludes persons who have transferred religious communal affiliation through conversion.
- Expansion of the Law of Return to cover persons of Jewish descent irrespective of religious status is a legislative choice rather than a judicial one.

## Conclusion

The High Court of Justice held that the Law of Return’s reference to “every Jew” did not extend to a Jew-by-birth who voluntarily converted to Catholicism and became clergy, and it therefore sustained the Minister of the Interior’s denial of oleh status.


Rufeisen v. Minister of the Interior, HCJ 72/62, 16 P.D. 2428 (Isr. 1962)