Can I just convert to Judaism tomorrow and get a free vacation to Israel? - eviltoast

I know Jewish people are granted some special right to visit the state of Israel, and some companies organize free tours for Jewish born or living outside.

But does that apply only for people ethnically Jewish that come from Jewish families? Or also applies to new converts to Judaism?

Like, not literally converting tomorrow and demand a free vacation to Israel, but like, converting and in a few years wait and see if they offer me a free vacation to the country to visit the most iconic places of Judaism?

How does that works?

edit: I’m a hispanic atheist with no Jewish family that I know of, and I’m not interested on joining any religion, this is just a hypothetical case.

  • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Friendly reminder that Israel sterilized administered birth control shots without informed consent to Ethiopian Jewish women who were trying to invoke the Law of Return and migrate to Israel.

    • Kellamity@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      This just isnt true. I’m not saying this to defend Israel and their actions in Gaza - its just really important to not get swept up in falsehoods, particularly at a time when legitimate criticism of Israel is being portrayed as antisemitic.

      There are allegations that Israel administered a birth control drug - which has to be readministered every three months - to Ethiopian immigrants without informed consent. The investigation into this was flawed, but there is literally no evidence to suggest that anyone was forced or coerced into taking this.

      What does seem plausible and even likely based on the facts is that doctors often made little or no effort to overcome language and cultural barriers and make sure that consent was fully informed and patients were completely aware of the effects of the procedure.

      This is definitely an issue in and of itself, and is a level of societal racism. But what it is not, is ideoligical forcible sterilization.

      Further, when you say ‘Ethiopian Jewish women tried to invoke the Law of Return’ the implication is that Israel was really against Ethiopian immigration. In reality, the Israeli government worked with the US to actively enable this - in 1984 Israeli covert forces worked to evacuate the Beta Israel community from Sudan to Israel during the civil war there (this is known as Operation Moses).

      Basically, there is so so much to legitimately criticise the Israeli government for right now. Repeating misinformation like this just straight up doesn’t help.

    • Akisamb@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      They gave them a birth control shot without properly informing them of what it was. Still scandalous, but not what you are saying.