Granting David Ben Moshe temporary residence is unneeded litmus test

Ben Moshe is no Meyer Lansky. He’s just an ordinary man who has turned his life around and wants to lead an ordinary life in Israel with his Israeli wife and Israeli daughter.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
David Ben Moshe together with his wife and child (photo credit: COURTESY DAVID BEN MOSHE)
David Ben Moshe together with his wife and child
(photo credit: COURTESY DAVID BEN MOSHE)
It was welcome news that David Ben Moshe, 33, finally received notification of temporary residency in Israel this month after his conversion to Judaism was officially recognized, but this is still not enough. Ben Moshe, an African American convert whose efforts to obtain Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return have been repeatedly foiled by Kafkaesque bureaucracy over the last three years, must now be given full citizenship.
On Sunday, Ben Moshe received his A5 visa from the Jerusalem branch of the Immigration and Population Authority, which can be extended after a year. But as he told The Jerusalem Post, although the bureaucracy involved in this process had gone smoothly and in the right direction, “We’re unhappy about the unknown length of the trial period, which leaves the door open to dragging it out.”
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The breakthrough, it should be noted, followed an editorial in the Post urging the government to recognize Ben Moshe’s conversion. We argued that while Ben Moshe is a former convict, he has served his sentence, done teshuva (repentance) and jumped all the necessary hurdles to be recognized as an upright member of his community and a Jew under the Law of Return, and has every right to be an Israeli.
Ben Moshe was converted by an Orthodox rabbi in 2017 under the auspices of Rabbi Etan Mintz of B’nai Israel in Baltimore and he came to Israel on a study trip. He applied for citizenship in May 2018, married his American-born wife, Tamar Gresser, under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, had a baby daughter and settled in the community of Beit Zayit, outside Jerusalem. A personal trainer, he runs his own business, Magen Fitness, an online coaching service that helps busy people achieve their fitness goals.
When the Interior Ministry initially denied his request for citizenship, it cited criminal convictions in the US against Ben Moshe in 2010 for which he served two-and-a-half years in prison.
Following the first report by Jerusalem Post correspondent Jeremy Sharon on Ben Moshe’s situation last month, the ministry sent him a letter that stated, after a review of his request, it had been decided that he was eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return. Because he had a criminal record, the letter added, he would be given a trial period of residency on an A5 visa after which his request for permanent citizenship would be reviewed.
Rabbi Seth Farber, director of the ITIM religious services organization that has represented Ben Moshe, said the case represents “the victory of justice over bureaucracy.” Still, Farber stressed that his organization would continue to track Ben Moshe’s case until his temporary status becomes permanent.
“ITIM continues to represent hundreds of people each month who are striving to live Jewish lives in Israel. We will not rest until Israel is respectful and responsive to the Jewish needs of our people,” he said.
We agree wholeheartedly with Rabbi Farber. Anyone who undergoes a proper conversion to Judaism and wants to make aliyah must be given citizenship by the State of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people. Israel needs to be more welcoming and easier in the way it accepts Jews who might have a different background than the average Israeli in this country.
Ben Moshe’s case is a litmus test for Israeli citizenship. Under the 1950 Law of Return, all Jews and their spouses can become citizens of Israel, but a 1954 amendment gave the interior minister the right to deny citizenship to “a person with a criminal past likely to endanger public welfare.”

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This amendment has subsequently been used to prevent Israel from becoming a haven for criminals such as American mobster Meyer Lansky, who was denied citizenship in 1972 and deported back to the US despite having had no previous convictions.
Ben Moshe is no Meyer Lansky. He’s just an ordinary man who has turned his life around and wants to lead an ordinary life in Israel with his Israeli wife and Israeli daughter. On his behalf, we again appeal to the outgoing government: Stop this tortuous ordeal. Give David Ben Moshe the Israeli citizenship that he deserves.
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