How to define Jewish identity has been a central issue since the state’s founding, Noam Party Chairman Avi Maoz, a former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, told JNS at his Knesset office in Jerusalem.
Maoz has introduced a bill to abolish state recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions. The legislation seeks, for the first time, to codify in law that the definition of a Jew will be based solely on halachah [Jewish religious law], both in the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry and in other areas of Israeli law.
“Religious law determines a Jewish person as someone born to a Jewish mother or someone who converted in courts of conversion recognized by a rabbi from the rabbinical establishment in accordance with halachah,” he said.
“For people from outside the country, if the conversion tribunal here recognizes the conversion they underwent, then fine—and if not, then not,” he added.
Three years ago, Maoz joined the government as deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He resigned in February 2023, rejoined later that year, and resigned a second time in March 2025.
Maoz said while he does not sit in the government or the coalition, he respects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has known for more than four decades.
“Forty-one years ago, I was involved in the struggle to bring about the release of Natan Sharansky and the rest of the Prisoners of Zion from Soviet prisons. We arrived at the office of the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, and together we planned the strategic move that about a year and a half later would lead to the release of Sharansky,” he said.
Among legislation that he has advanced is a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and another to promote access to wheelchairs for disabled people with low cognitive abilities. Both passed their preliminary readings.
The Law of Return
Maoz has also pushed to abolish the Grandchild Clause in the Law of Return, which allows people with a Jewish grandparent to immigrate to Israel even if they themselves are not Jewish, making them eligible for all benefits granted to Jewish immigrants.
Israel, as the Jewish nation, is the only place in the world where Jews can arrive and receive citizenship from day one, he noted.
“Some 40% of immigrants who aren’t Jewish move to the country based on that clause. It’s very important to reduce non-Jewish immigration. Israel is the only country in the world for Jews. In Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the word ‘Jewish’ appears 16 times. The essence of the Jewish nation is to absorb Jews from around the world after 2,000 years of exile. We need to return to the primary objective and the primary purpose of the Law of Return,” he said.
The Grandchild Clause was legislated in 1970 to facilitate immigration from the Soviet Union in the context of family reunification and, according to Maoz, it is no longer relevant.
Maoz said his Noam Party’s mission is to strengthen the Jewish state and draw public attention to what he describes as the progressive culture that has permeated the country’s public systems.
While progressive politics seek to “blur reality and eliminate identities,” Noam aims to establish and strengthen a single, definite identity—the Jewish identity, he said.
“We are Jews, we have our truth, we know to differentiate light from darkness, between Israel and the rest of the nations, and between the six days of action and the seventh day of rest, the Shabbat,” he said.
“As such, Jewish identity must be strengthened in the education system and in all public systems. In the Jewish nation, we behave as Jews,” he added.
Perceived by some as anti-LGBT rights, Maoz said he has never come out against the right of gay people to do as they please with their bodies, but he opposes organizations that push agendas in schools and public systems.
On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an order declaring, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” Maoz said the time has come for Israel to do the same and legislate a law saying that a man is a man and a woman is a woman.
In April, Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch told JNS he had shut down a project that sought to introduce “gender thinking” and “gender sensitivity” into kindergarten classes for children aged 3 to 6. Maoz said the education minister acted following his appeal.
“Our children won’t be part of an experiment led by progressive trolling and wokism. We will fight against wokism and progressivism because we don’t think there is a place for it in our country,” Maoz said.
Not the 51st state
Discussing Israel-U.S. relations, Maoz said a “privilege” has fallen on America to help the Jewish nation.
“We were in a difficult situation during Simchat Torah two years ago [on Oct. 7, 2023], and America came to help us. President Trump helped us attack Iran, but we are not the 51st star on the American flag. We are not a protectorate. We are an independent, sovereign country. We decide our future. America’s help is welcome, but we don’t need its permission to attack our enemies,” Maoz said.
“We are sovereign in our security, our agriculture, our economy. Just as Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Biden at the time—that if needed, we would fight with our fingernails when America imposed a [partial arms] embargo [in May 2024 over a potential IDF offensive in Rafah]—I say to President Trump that we are not dependent on America. Thank you for your friendship, but we will have sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, and we don’t need permission,” he added.
Regarding Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s conscription bill, Maoz said nothing should be taken for granted.
“The army needs to show that it truly wants to draft the ultra-Orthodox to serve, and that the ultra-Orthodox will enter as such and leave as such—that the army won’t reeducate them in a military style,” he said.
“The Torah and the army are two pillars on which the country stands, and just as the army cannot overlap with the yeshivah, the yeshivah cannot overlap with the army. As such, I will only agree to a law that results from an agreement,” Maoz said.
In the most recent election on Nov. 1, 2022, Maoz ran in what he called a technical bloc with current Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Both are in the government, while Maoz has since resigned.
For the next election, he is organizing his separate candidacy with the Noam Party.
“I don’t understand why the government doesn’t impose sovereignty on Judea and Samaria. I don’t understand why the government doesn’t support my law on halachic conversions or the one on the Grandchild Clause. Why not push my bill to impose sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, which is still at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, when everyone voted in favor?” he asked.
“This government calls itself fully right-wing, but they need to act as such,” Maoz said.
