Posthumous citizenship is a form of honorary citizenship granted by countries to immigrants or other foreigners after their deaths.
In the late 1940s, Mordechai Shenhavi, one of the early supporters of the creation of an Israeli national memorial authority whose efforts would eventually lead to the building of Yad Vashem, made the first proposal to grant honorary posthumous Israeli citizenship to all of the victims of the Holocaust. Israeli legal experts looked into the idea, but the government eventually decided to move ahead with the building of the memorial first, leaving the idea of posthumous citizenship to be resolved later. [1] There were voices of opposition to Shenhavi's plan, such as Jacob Blaustein of the American Jewish Committee, and as a result, the Israeli government at the time chose not to make a blanket grant of posthumous citizenship but instead granted it only upon application by a relative or friend of one of the dead. [2]
However, in 1985, Israel granted posthumous citizenship to all the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. After the Knesset approved the decision, the Israeli Minister for Education, Yitzhak Navon, signed a proclamation granting posthumous citizenship to all the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. [3] [4]
Dutch nationality law makes no provision for a posthumous grant of citizenship. In 2004, a television programme about Anne Frank sparked public interest in granting her posthumous citizenship. Frank had moved to the Netherlands with her family while a young girl, and her father became a Dutch citizen after her death. A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk stated that the ministry was trying to find a way in which this could be accomplished, but expressed her doubt that it would be possible. However, the proposal did not enjoy universal support; Patricia Bosboom of the Anne Frank House museum stated, "She was as Dutch as you can be. Giving her citizenship would add nothing", while David Barnouw of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation described it as insulting to other victims of the Holocaust. [5] In the end, Frank was not granted citizenship under the proposal. [6]
In the United States, Pub. L. 101–249 (8 U.S.C. §§ 1440 – 1441) allows the next-of-kin of non-U.S. citizens who died due to injuries sustained while on active duty with the United States Armed Forces to request that the Secretary of Homeland Security grant posthumous citizenship to the deceased. That is an honorary status which does not confer any immigration benefits to the decedent's relatives. [7] In the 2000s and 2010s, there were roughly 30,000 to 40,000 service members who were not U.S. citizens; by 2007, a total of 59 non-citizens who had died on active duty had been granted posthumous citizenship. [8] [9] The process of gaining posthumous citizenship is not automatic and requires the submission of an application form, but family members of soldiers killed on duty have suggested making the grant of posthumous citizenship automatic instead, and a number of members of Congress have sponsored bills to that end. [9] [10]
There have also been calls for the granting of posthumous citizenship to other individuals or groups. In 2004 and again in 2007, Congressman Steve Israel sponsored a bill to grant posthumous citizenship to Anne Frank. Her cousin Bernhard Elias expressed misgivings about the idea, stating that Anne herself had wanted to be Dutch, and others including Emory University Institute for Jewish Studies director Deborah Lipstadt stated that the United States should not have the right to claim Frank's legacy after having rebuffed the efforts of her family and thousands of other Jewish refugees from Europe to immigrate to the United States in the early years of World War II. [6] [11]
In 2013, Daniel Swalm, the grandson of a Minnesota woman who had lost US citizenship under Section 3 of the Expatriation Act of 1907 for marrying a Swedish immigrant and died without regaining her citizenship, began lobbying Congress for posthumous citizenship to women like his grandmother. [12] He contacted his senator Al Franken, who in 2014 sponsored a resolution (S.Res. 402) expressing regret for the passage of the 1907 Act. [13] [14]
Naturalization is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an application or a motion and approval by legal authorities. The rules of naturalization vary from country to country but typically include a promise to obey and uphold that country's laws and taking and subscribing to an oath of allegiance, and may specify other requirements such as a minimum legal residency and adequate knowledge of the national dominant language or culture. To counter multiple citizenship, some countries require that applicants for naturalization renounce any other citizenship that they currently hold, but whether this renunciation actually causes loss of original citizenship, as seen by the host country and by the original country, will depend on the laws of the countries involved.
Israelis are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure; followed by other ethnic and religious minorities, who account for 5 percent.
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's vision, as stated on its website, is: "To lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide."
There have been Jewish communities in the United States since colonial times, with individuals living in various cities before the American Revolution. Early Jewish communities were primarily Sephardi composed of immigrants from Brazil, Amsterdam, or England and merchants who settled in cities. Early historical notes reflect a small, necessarily clandestine presence of Sephardic Jews in trade or business in some colonial regions of early New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York. As in most of Colonial America, inclusion and acceptance in most publicly recognized professions such as attorneys, physicians, skilled trades or teachers, as well as land and registered business ownership were prohibited and outlawed for identified American Jews due to discrimination and disenfranchisement. Records reflect several family names of that largely unknown, early era as Seixas, Louzado, Naar, and Prince.
A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. Green card holders are formally known as lawful permanent residents (LPRs). As of 2019, there are an estimated 13.9 million green card holders, of whom 9.1 million are eligible to become United States citizens. Approximately 65,000 of them serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up", moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action—emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel—is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida. The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
The Law of Return is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Section 1 of the Law of Return declares that "every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh [immigrant]". In the Law of Return, the State of Israel gave effect to the Zionist movement's "credo" which called for the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state. In 1970, the right of entry and settlement was extended to people with at least one Jewish grandparent and a person who is married to a Jew, whether or not they are considered Jewish under Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law.
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution. She is a celebrated diarist who described everyday life from her family hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.
Anchor baby is a term used to refer to a child born to a non-citizen mother in a country that has birthright citizenship which will therefore help the mother and other family members gain legal residency. In the U.S., the term is generally used as a derogatory reference to the supposed role of the child, who automatically qualifies as an American citizen under jus soli and the rights guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The term is also often used in the context of the debate over illegal immigration to the United States. A similar term, "passport baby", has been used in Canada for children born through so-called "maternity" or "birth tourism".
Yerida is emigration by Jews from the State of Israel. Yerida is the opposite of aliyah, which is immigration by Jews to Israel. Zionists are generally critical of the act of yerida and the term is somewhat derogatory. The emigration of non-Jewish Israelis is not included in the term.
Nationality law is the law of a sovereign state, and of each of its jurisdictions, that defines the legal manner in which a national identity is acquired and how it may be lost. In international law, the legal means to acquire nationality and formal membership in a nation are separated from the relationship between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Some nations domestically use the terms interchangeably, though by the 20th century, nationality had commonly come to mean the status of belonging to a particular nation with no regard to the type of governance which established a relationship between the nation and its people. In law, nationality describes the relationship of a national to the state under international law and citizenship describes the relationship of a citizen within the state under domestic statutes. Different regulatory agencies monitor legal compliance for nationality and citizenship. A person in a country of which he or she is not a national is generally regarded by that country as a foreigner or alien. A person who has no recognised nationality to any jurisdiction is regarded as stateless.
Andrée Geulen-Herscovici was a Belgian teacher and member of the resistance during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. After becoming aware of the persecution of Belgian Jews through her employment, she became involved in the Committee for the Defence of Jews in 1943 and actively assisted with the organisation and protection of "hidden children" amid the Holocaust in Belgium. In the aftermath of the war, she was recognised as Righteous among the Nations by the Israeli institute Yad Vashem and received several other honours in Belgium and Israel.
Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer any change to citizenship or nationality.
Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also includes the descendants of Jewish Israelis who have emigrated and settled outside of the State of Israel. Alongside Samaritans and populations from the Jewish diaspora scattered outside of the Land of Israel, Jewish Israelis comprise the modern descendants of the ancient Israelites and Hebrews. They are predominantly found in Israel and the Western world, as well as in other countries worldwide in smaller numbers. The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews speak Hebrew, a Semitic language, as their native tongue. Israel, the Jewish state, is the only country that has a Jewish-majority population, and is currently home to approximately half of the world's Jews.
Hélène Berr was a French woman of Jewish ancestry and faith, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank".
Israeli Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Israeli descent. In this category are those who are Israelis through nationality and/or citizenship. Reflecting Israel's demographics, while the vast majority of the Israeli American populace is Jewish, it is also made up of various ethnic and religious minorities; most notably the ethnic Arab minority, which includes Muslims, Christians, and the Druze, as well as the smaller non-Arab minority ethnic groups.
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, such as freedom of expression, due process, the rights to vote, live and work in the United States, and to receive federal assistance.
Eva Schloss is an Austrian-English Holocaust survivor, memoirist and stepdaughter of Otto Frank, the father of Margot and diarist Anne Frank. Schloss speaks widely of her family's experiences during the Holocaust and is a participant in the USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive project to record video answers to be used in educational tools.
Rasmea Yousef Odeh in Arabic رسمية يوسف عودة is a Palestinian Jordanian and former American citizen who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine convicted by Israeli military courts for involvement in the 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing. Odeh claimed that the confessions she claimed were obtained under torture, and that the charges were political. She was sentenced to life in prison in Israel and spent 10 years in prison before she was released in a prisoner exchange with the PFLP in 1980. After her release in a prisoner exchange, she immigrated to the United States, became a U.S. citizen, and served as associate director at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago, Illinois.
Jacqueline Semha Nataf Gmach is a Tunisian-born, Sorbonne-trained American educator. Her work focuses on Jewish culture, Sephardic history, and preserving the artistic achievements of people victimized by the Holocaust.