Genealogy research

The following are eligible for Israeli citizenship:
- Children of Jews
- Grandchildren of Jews
- Spouses of Jews
- Widows and widowers of Jews
- Spouses of Jewish children
- Widows and widowers of Jewish children
- Spouses of Jewish grandchildren
- Widows and widowers of Jewish grandchildren
- Adopted children by Jews or Jewish children

Important! Jewishness is transmitted through the maternal line, but citizenship is transmitted through both the maternal and paternal lines.

For example, if your maternal grandmother is Jewish, then you are Jewish and eligible for citizenship. If your paternal grandmother is Jewish, then your father is Jewish, and you, as the son of a Jew, are also eligible for citizenship. If your husband’s great-grandmother is Jewish, then his grandparents are Jewish, and he is the grandson of a Jew and is eligible for citizenship. You, as his wife, are also eligible.

When preparing for a consular appointment, in addition to birth, marriage, and death certificates, diplomas, military IDs, work books, and other documents indicating nationality will be useful.

It’s important to remember that during the Soviet era, Jewish names underwent a process of extensive Russification and secularization (from the Latin saecularis – worldly, secular). Under pressure from the antireligious campaign and state xenophobia (especially during the fight against “cosmopolitanism”), traditional Jewish (Yiddish and Hebrew) names were replaced with Russian equivalents or neutral Soviet ones.

The evolution of names in the USSR occurred in two stages:

Early Soviet period (1920s–1930s): Traditional names became widely considered a relic of the past.

Beginning in the late 1940s (the surge of state anti-Semitism, the “Doctors’ Plot”), many Jews took radical measures. People completely changed their Jewish names and patronymics to Slavic ones, and sometimes even adopted new surnames to erase any associations with their origins and avoid discrimination in employment or university admissions.

Examples of Name Adaptations
Male:
Moishe/Moses – Mikhail, Shlomo – Semyon or Vasily, Girsh – Grigory, Binyamin – Veniamin, Chaim – Yefim, Borukh – Boris, Leib – Lev or Leonid…
Female:
Reyzl – Rose, Hayka – Anna, Gitlya – Galina, Sarah – Sofia, Miriam – Maria.

It’s important to remember that consonance wasn’t always maintained during name changes. For example, Bendet could become Grigory.

There’s a common misconception that if we see a birth record of our grandfather or great-grandfather, Chaim, in 1907, for example, and in 1926 his marriage record lists him as Yefim, then there must be a separate name change document. This isn’t true. In the vast majority of cases, you won’t find such a document; it simply didn’t exist.

Consuls are generally understanding when names in pre-revolutionary and Soviet documents don’t match. But in my experience, there was a case where the consulate refused to recognize Khaya as Evgeniya. The client found a solution herself. She contacted a local rabbi, who issued her a certificate confirming that such name changes had been practiced during the Soviet era.