Russian-Speakers who Want to Make Aliya Could Need DNA Test
By Asher Zeiger,
The Times of Israel
| 07. 29. 2013
A number of people from the former Soviet Union wishing to immigrate to Israel could be subjected to DNA testing to prove their Jewishness, the Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday.
The policy was reported in Maariv on Monday, one day after the Israeli paper revealed that a 19-year-old woman from the former Soviet Union was required to take the test to qualify for a Birthright Israel trip.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that many Jews from the FSU who were born out-of-wedlock can be required to bring DNA confirmation of Jewish heritage in order to be allowed to immigrate as a Jew.
A source in the PMO told Maariv that the consul’s procedure, approved by the legal department of the Interior Ministry, states that a Russian-speaking child born out-of-wedlock is eligible to receive an Israeli immigration visa if the birth was registered before the child turned 3. Otherwise a DNA test to prove Jewish parentage is necessary.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the decision to require DNA testing for Russian Jews is based on the recommendations of Nativ...
Related Articles
By Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge | 03.21.2026
Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn’t fully understand the technology, she was curious about what it could do, and she...
By Ritsuko Kawai, Wired | 03.14.2026
On March 6, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially granted conditional and time-limited marketing authorization to two regenerative medical products derived from reprogrammed iPS cells, marking exactly 20 years since the creation of mouse iPS cells.These will...
By Paula Siverino Bavio, BioNews | 03.16.2026
State flag of Peru via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by SA 2.0
A recent surrogacy case in Peru had a good outcome for one family, but does not provide wider certainty for families, surrogates or clinicians, writes Dr Paula...
By Dr. Marcin Śmietana, Progress Educational Trust (PET) | 03.02.2026
When a family created through surrogacy abroad returns to their home country after the birth of the child, the genetic parent(s) are usually recognised as legal parents by default. However, any parent without a genetic link to the child needs...
.jpg){kind=link}