Rabbi David Stav, one of the candidates for the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, has confirmed that Israel’s immigration law is so racially based that only Jews “who can prove they are Jewish” are allowed to get married in Israel.

Jews are defined in Israel by descent, according to halakh, or Jewish religious law, and the Israeli government follows these religious laws. In other words, a Jew is defined by descent, as opposed to a Christian, Muslim or any other religion, which welcomes anybody from anywhere. This is why Israel welcomes atheist communist non-religious Jews, but not those who practice Judaism but might not be able to definitively prove that they are racially Jewish.

Speaking before a Jewish Supremacist extremist gathering of the “Anti-Defamation League” in Palm Beach, Florida, Stav said that Jewish people who come to Israel from other countries — particularly Russia — have trouble proving they’re Jewish.

“They want to lead a Jewish life in the state of Israel and they’re treated like they’re not Jews,” he said.

Stav cited 2010 statistics that showed one-third of secular couples in Israel got married in Cyprus, because “only those who can prove they’re Jewish are allowed to marry in Israel. Children of these couples would not be considered Jewish because their parents married in Cyprus,” he said.

Stav, who is on the more “liberal” side of Judaism, said that he felt this rule should be relaxed.

“More and more Israelis want to be Jewish, but they don’t want to be coerced by others that will define what level of Judaism they belong to,” he said.

Jewish marriage and divorce in Israel is under the jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which defines a person’s Jewish status strictly according to halakh, or Jewish law as derived from Judaism’s “holy books.”

The rabbinate’s standards and interpretations in these matters are then used by the Israeli Interior Ministry in registering marriages and divorces.

Many Israeli citizens who are not recognized by the Rabbinate as Jewish (or have not provided sufficient proof of this) have been issued with Israeli identity cards that do not include their Hebrew calendar birth date.