JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — A same-sex couple from Maryland is suing the U.S. State Department for refusing to grant birthright citizenship to their infant daughter. Kessem Kiviti, who is 6 months old, was born via surrogacy in Canada, according to the LGBTQ immigrants’ rights organization Immigration Equality. She is the daughter of Roee and Adiel Kiviti, who…
(JTA) — Portugal has approved about a third of approximately 33,000 applications for citizenship under its 2015 law for descendants of Sephardic Jews, according to official data. Applications based on the 2015 law, primarily from Israel, Turkey, Brazil and Venezuela, are behind a 10-percent increase in applications in 2018, which saw 41,324 such requests in…
President Trump’s calls to strip American-born citizens of their citizenship should chill all Americans, but it is especially disturbing to anyone with knowledge of Jewish history. Citizenship is a profoundly Jewish issue. In the Middle Ages, many Jews were simply not citizens of their countries. “In much of Europe during the Middle Ages, Jews were…
President Trump vowed to end the blanket right to citizenship for children born on American soil in an interview with Axios Tuesday morning. But legal eagle Alan Dershowitz, known for his frequent defenses of Trump, says that the 14th Amendment authorizes birthright citizenship and it can’t just be changed by executive order. “[Birthright citizenship] doesn’t…
In 1919, the United States deported Emma Goldman, along with nearly 250 other foreign-born radicals. This move became possible with the passage of the 1918 Immigration Act, which permitted the deportation of “aliens” who expressed support for anarchism. Goldman, however, claimed U.S. citizenship, acquired through her brief marriage to Jacob Kershner. The government’s response? To…
(JTA) — Nearly 5,000 people have become citizens of Spain or Portugal following the passing of laws in both countries on the naturalization of descendants of Sephardic Jews. In Portugal, where a procedure for naturalization under the law went into effect last year, 292 applicants for naturalization have been approved, Catarina Madeira, a spokeswoman for…
(JTA) — A Palestinian woman who had not told U.S. immigration authorities that she had been imprisoned in Israel for two terror attacks accepted a plea bargain that forces her to leave the country. Rasmea Odeh, 69, would not spend time in U.S. prison or detention but would lose her U.S. citizenship, according to a Thursday statement by the Rasmea Defense…
As the reality of Brexit seeps in, some Brits of Jewish ancestry are finding an unexpected way to remain affiliated with the European Union — by applying for German citizenship. Following the June referendum, in which Britain voted to leave the European Union, applications for German citizenship have soared. At least 100 families or individuals…
