Dual Citizen

No, you’re better off keeping your American citizenship and not acquiring or accepting Israeli citizenship even if you move to Eretz Yisroel. This will help you and your children avoid any heartache regarding the Israeli military draft, as a non-citizen won’t be drafted.

If you live in the U.S. there’s no advantage. If you move to Israel there are advantages.

1. There is no mitzvah to serve in the IDF.
2. It makes life a lot easier, you are more integrated in the country’s system if you make aliyah, leaving less headache for schooling, health care, etc that are more complicated when you aren’t a citizen

1. We don’t pasken that way.

Avi, “If they are born in Israel they will be citizens even if their parents are not.”

That’s inaccurate as a non-citizen visitor to Israel who gives birth there does not receive Israeli citizenship for her newborn child.

And it can be a big deal about visiting Russia. If someone is flying Aeroflot (very common Because of the cheap flares) and misses a connection, Americans cannot leave the airport to go to a hotel (with one exception) to spend the night (And that hotel you are almost treated like a prisoner as you cannot leave your room or the hotel, its in a special zone) Israelis can go to a normal hotel to rest

Get Russian citizenship instead of Israeli citizenship and you’ll have a much easier time entering Russia, if that’s your goal.

Especially if you want to get someone elected president

If you are living in Eretz Yisrael, holding on to a foreign passport is a way of stating that you really aren’t sure about staying in Israel, and need to have a place to flee if the country collapses or if the medinah survives but becomes fanatically anti-religious. There are some inconveniences in holding on to a foreign passport (and a lot of tax issues particularly for Americans), but the bottom line is that if the medinah is driven into the sea, the leading priority in all but one country in that region, you won’t be a stateless refugee.

Lit, an American citizen must leave with his American passport. I presume that there is a computer match to the Social Security number. Snowden left before being discovered. As for Israel, extraditing residents to the US, that door swings both ways (although Israel has conditions like no death penalty and right to serve sentence in Israel). The Tzitz Eliezer discusses the halachic rationale for allowing it in Torat haMedina (while Rav Shaul Yisraeli disagreed it could be that the service of sentence in Israel clause did not exist then).

Joseph, if they are not at least legal residents they all have to leave periodically when their visas expire.

Akuperma, that is a spy attitude.

Some clarifications
1. status of children of non-citizens who were born in Israel – I know of American kollel couples who had children born while they were in Israel on student visas. Their kids would have become Israelli citizens, to avoid that they had to go down to the misrad hapnim and deny/forgo citizenship.
2. Being a citizen does not equal having a passport. One can have citizenship and never apply for a passport, as long as one does not have to travel in/out of the country.
3. There is no advantage to getting Israeli citizenship if one lives in the US. As LC said, you technically have to pay bituach leumi even while in Chul, which would be a problem if you would then move to Israel and apply for medical coverage- you would owe all that back bituach leumi. Trips to Israel will be more complicated if you are a male above 18 who is eligible for the draft. Also, if you do want to make Aliya, you may not qualify for certain benefits as a Toshav Chozer vs a new Oleh. As far as expenses, tourists can get VAT back at the airport for some purchases, Israelis can’t. But hotels charge more for tourists than they do for locals. There used to be 2 price lists in some places- I am not sure if that was actually legal. If G-d forbid one had to flee the US and wanted to take refuge in Israel, the Law of Return would guarantee you would be able to move to Israel even if you did not previously have citizenship/passport, as long as you can prove you’re Jewish.
4. The new Israeli biometric passport is still valid for 10 years for adults (5 years for kids) unless you don’t agree to save your fingerprints in the database. Adult passport costs as little as $45 if you pay online during the winter months, if you pay in the local misrad hapnim it is around $75. So it’s way cheaper than a US passport (renewal $110/adult, first time $145). Don’t know how much it costs to renew it from outside of Israel.

litvishechossid:

As an American living in Eretz Yisroel, here are my comments to what you wrote:

First of all there is a new policy which requires you to renew it every 5 years not 10 like it used to be so now it’s an extra 80-100 dollars expense every few years for something you don’t use much. Not true. An adult passport is valid for 10 years. A childs passport is valid for only 5 years.

Secondly renting a car in Israel you will have to pay extra taxes If you go in with Israeli passport rather than just as an American tourist which is difficult to do when they see you have an israeli passport as well in their system. Not true. If you live in Israel, you will need an Israeli Driver’s License since you will not be on a turist visa but on a student visa or permanent resident.
You might owe “bituach leumi” in Israel for having an Israeli passport and these mix-ups happen a lot especially if you stay there for extended time. True, but you also have medical insurance, child allowance, and other benefits.
Anyways it’s just much easier to have one passport and maintaining it rather than having another unnecessary one. Why? There are people that have 2 cars or a summer home, and are fine maintaining more than one?

Avi, I am not an expert on bituach leumi, all I know is what I have heard from people who have left who have had issues. I think if they get an exemption, then when they come back to Israel there is a significant waiting period until bituach leumi kicks in again and they can sign up for kupa- something that could be an issue for many people, especially those with small children who spend lots of time at doctors.
LC, not sure what site you are looking at, but both in Hebrew and in English, the Population Authority of the MIsrad HPnim’s website states that adult passports are valid for 10 years unless you don’t let them save your fingerprints.

Winnie, I once had to leave for what turned out to only be a few months. I did not owe anything on the period when I was abroad. I was billed much later and they tried to impose a late penalty but I argued with the clerk and she cancelled it.

Ben,
1. Serving IS one’s ruchniut.
2. On the contrary, the Zionists offered to send armed men to guard the yeshivot but they refused saying that they had an good relations with the local Arab leaders. The only “provocation” was refusing to sign away the Kotel (both Rav Kook and Rav Sonnenfeld steadfastly refused despite British pressure).
3. The state is the state of all Jews. If you do not think that one Jew has the obligation to protect another if he can then there is a tremendous hole in your chinuch.
4. Rav Ovadia also said that Israel’s wars are milchemot mitzva. He also said that without the IDF there would be no yeshivot.
5. FYI, only 20-22,000 have been killed since 5708. Who is to say what would have happened to them if they had had to stay in Europe and Arab countries? As we say here ,every bullet has an address. Once someone drove wearing a helmet and bullet-proof vest. The bullet struck in the tiny space between them. On the other hand, once Arabs fired over thirty shots at a girl waiting at a hitchhiking station from the other side of the highway. She was only lightly grazed and was released from the hospital the same day.
If not for the state of Israel there would have been mass conversion. Xtian missionaries were using the Holocaust as proof that Hashem rejected us c”v. They even accosted Rav Soloveichik during his travels between Boston and NY. If there had been a state twenty years earlier there would not have been a Holocaust.

LC, so we’re both right- I was referring to passports issued in Israel, you were referring to those issued by embassies outside of Israel. Apparently the embassies do not have the ability to issue the biometric passport. Note that it’s relatively new, so it could be eventually the database technology would be available in embassies as well, and they would be able to issue them?

I’m an American with both parents having Israeli citizenship and one parent currently lives there.
Would me only having an American passport when I travel to Israel for a month in the summer cause any problems? Visas, draft…?

Avi – in regard to the luggage, by 7lbs overweight I am assuming he meant an additional seven pounds beyond the limit, not 7 total. And in American airports they talk pounds. I can tell you he is probably right about that story because I had the same thing happen to my daughter. we were told an extra suitcase would be $125. When her luggage was found to be 10 lbs over the limit they told us it would cost us $250 . I told them I am not paying $250 and that if I have to pay anything I will pay $125 and get an extra suitcase. They insisted that it would cost me $250 either way, and went on to insist that the agent must have been looking at a domestic screen or some shopping site because its $250. they would not let her take that luggage until we stuffed it into an additional suitcase and paid $250 in cash – as they told us they don’t take credit cards either.

avi – you ask but then assume. We absolutely did our due diligence, which is why I knew the prices. We didn’t end up needed an extra suitcase nor were they overweight. Although I have never heard of an issue previously, they decided her carryon was too heavy. They wanted her to take everything out and we were able to move it to her suitcase but that brought it to about 3 or 4 pounds overweight. they insisted we then pay an “overweight fee” or pay for another suitcase. I don’t find them to be so inflexible when it isn’t seminary girls or yeshiva bachurim.

Syag, actually it is questionable if they have a halachic right to be flexible as it is not their airline.

Lit,
1. See Why do airlines make a big deal out of single-piece baggage weight limits? on quora.com. See my previous post for the rates of different airlines, some of which are even higher.
2. So be late in NY and early in Israel.
3. I would like to hear their stories of rude customers who scream and yell about another &200-$300 on a trip for which they are paying thousands, especially when it’s their fault. I have been on both sides of the bureaucratic desk so I can tell you that there are always two sides. Maybe you should read one of the “dan b’kaf zechut” books.

Syag,
1. You obviously did not read the article. The overweight charges are because of fuel costs (the heavier the plane the more fuel it uses).
2. There is a simple solution to your problem Do not bring overweight or extra luggage (and if you really need more stuff bring an extra if that is cheaper) . If you can’t so the time don’t do the crime.
3. Here are a few more money saving tips:
a. save exorbitant tuition costs and homeschool your kids
b. don’t buy your sons tefillin – let them use he shul’s loaner pairs (for that matter you can sell yours and also use the shul’s)
c. don’t buy a car – use public transportation
d. don’t buy a watch – ask others the time

Some airlines charge fat people for two seats.