Should Israel invest effort and resources in identifying people around the world with “affinity” to the Jewish people to increase the number of people who support the state or perhaps even convert them to Judaism? Yes, concluded a committee that Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett appointed “to assess the relationship between Israel and communities around the world with some connection to the Jewish people.” The committee even went so far as to call the quest for such people an important strategic objective that should be implemented immediately.

The committee, which submitted its recommendations to the Cabinet on March 27, determined that there are tens of millions of people around the world with some level of connection to the Jewish people. It then developed a detailed plan for reaching out to them to gain their support for Israel and the Jewish people. According to the committee, an unprecedented new situation is emerging in terms of what constitutes being a Jew and how many Jews there might be. This, it concludes, offers an extraordinary opportunity to bring groups with some kind of connection to Judaism even closer to the Jewish people.

The committee consisted of Binyamin Ish Shalom, an authority on Jewish philosophy; Ofir HaIvry, a specialist in political philosophy; and Zvi Hauser, a former Cabinet secretary and attorney. They began their work about a year ago, in 2017. The committee heard from experts, collected assorted material and data and reached the conclusion that in the past few decades, there has been unprecedented growth in the number and variety of individuals and groups who want to establish some connection to the Jewish people and Israel. This phenomenon, it determined, is unlike anything ever seen in Jewish history. The report states, “Among those people with a connection, there are some who want to join the Jewish people fully, but there are also many who seek another kind of relationship, based on support for and relationships with the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

The committee estimated that about 8 million Jews live outside Israel, which itself has a population of 6 million Jews. There are also some 9 million people eligible to immigrate to Israel according to the Law of Return; people with a Jewish parent are accorded this right, although by Jewish law only those with a Jewish mother are considered Jews. There are another 5 million descendants of people who left Judaism, and approximately 35 million descendants of Marranos — Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forced to convert in the late 15th and 16th centuries — as well as lost tribes and others with some link to the Jewish people. Furthermore, yet another group consists of communities, an estimated 60 million people, with some connection to the Jewish people, but who do not state so openly or who are “unknown.”