Russia Moves To Ban Jewish Agency

Russia's Justice Ministry asked a Moscow court on Saturday to shut down the Jewish Agency, a global organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.

Photo Insert: The logo of the Jewish Agency

With one of the larger Jewish populations outside the State of Israel, which has been operating in the nation as an independent Russian organization for 30 years, Carolina Landsmann wrote in a piece for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The appeal cites violations of Russian law, notwithstanding the Agency's continued practice of encouraging aliyah (return) to Israel through public diplomacy, counseling those interested, and flying olim hadashim (Jewish diaspora) to Israel. To urge aliyah, you must first locate the Jews, which entails gathering data on Jews who are, of course, Russian citizens.

This is a violation of both the data retention and information protection laws. As a result, the Jewish Agency's Moscow office received a letter claiming that the organization illegally collects and sends data about Russian citizens and must be closed down.

The letter also claimed that the Agency prefers to facilitate the migration of "Russian citizens working in science and business, whose departure to permanent residence outside of Russia significantly reduces Russia's scientific and economic potential." To put it another way, Russia accuses Israel of brain drain.

Stopping the Jewish Agency's operations in Russia will not prevent Jews who want to make aliyah from doing so. There are regular flights from Russia to Israel, and there is no longer any need for a recognized body to enable such interaction in an age when any Jew so inclined has a plethora of channels via which he or she might reach Israel.

The end of the Agency's operations in Russia, and later the rest of the globe, may have a beneficial, if not positively curative, effect on the increasingly blurred line between being Jewish and being an Israeli.

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