For your inner sense of self, it is enough to simply know that you are a Jew. But there are situations when this needs to be proven documented. And this is where many people have problems. It is no coincidence that confirmation of Jewishness is one of the important topics, with which they address the Chief Rabbi of St. Petersburg M.-M. Pevzner.

What about leaving for permanent residence?

A synagogue is a religious institution. Our task is to help a person prove halachic Jewishness, i.e. Jewish descent on the maternal side, which gives the right to perform certain religious ceremonies. The certificate of Jewishness we issued is not valid from the point of view of the state structures of Israel and Germany. Therefore, if your goal is permanent residence, the Synagogue will not be able to help you.

Why is it necessary to prove halakhic Jewishness, and why not?

If you want to visit the Synagogue, come to prayers, Shabbat and holidays, you do not need to confirm your Jewishness for this.

But for a chuppah (Jewish wedding), circumcision (and, G-d forbid, funeral), you must provide proof of your halakhic Jewishness to the rabbi.

What evidence is needed?

According to Jewish law, a person's verbal declaration that he is a Jew is not taken into account. A person can make mistakes, pursue some kind of benefit, etc. Therefore, only documents can serve as evidence.

What documents will confirm my Jewishness?

I would like to note right away that, according to the requirements of the law, one document is not enough to confirm Jewishness; there must be at least two of them - from different sources.

Let's look at a few examples.

1. Birth certificates of mother and grandmother, where in the “nationality” column it is indicated: “Jewish”

A very useful document. Previously, nationality was indicated on the birth certificate (but now it is not, and over time this threatens to grow into a serious problem).

But there are several pitfalls here.

First, according to the instructions of the Israeli Rabbinate, birth certificates of both mother and grandmother (mother's mother) are needed. Why? The fact is that mixed marriages are common nowadays. And it is possible that the mother’s mother is Jewish only on her father’s side, but in her daughter’s documents she indicated “Jewish.” Secondly, birth certificates issued after the late 1980s are considered insufficiently reliable and, according to the instructions of the Israeli rabbinate, cannot serve as proof of Jewishness. Thirdly, only the original is good. The recertification was most likely issued after the 1980s. But here the Synagogue can help. It happened that we sent our representative to the registry office so that he could see the original record with his own eyes.

2. House books

In the old house books, all information about the residents, including nationality, was recorded. If, suppose, your great-grandmother is recorded in the Leningrad house register as a Jew, and you can confirm with documents your descent from her on the maternal side, this is convincing evidence. It happened that we sent a competent representative from the Synagogue, he found an entry in the house register, and this helped the person establish Jewishness.

3. Military ID, old school diploma and any other Soviet-era document that indicates nationality.

If you have such a document and you can prove your descent from this person on the maternal side, this will also be useful to you.

Ketuba of a parishioner of the St. Petersburg Synagogue I. A. Barona

4. Ketubah (marriage certificate) of ancestors

If your ancestors were married according to Jewish rites, then we must assume that they were Jews. But, unfortunately, the ketubah cannot always serve as proof of your Jewishness. The reason is that the ketubah did not always indicate full names and the surnames of the bride and groom. In addition, there were cases when the chuppah was placed on people who were not 100% proven Jewish.

Therefore, the ketubah can serve as additional confirmation, but not the main evidence.

5. Certificate of burial of an ancestor in a Jewish cemetery

This document is not always taken into account. It happened that in the Jewish cemetery, contrary to the law, not only Jews were buried.

6. You have relatives who left for Israel and have been vetted by the rabbinate

This will help a lot. All you have to do is prove your relationship with them on the maternal side.

Of course, there are no general algorithms here.

When studying documents, the rabbi is guided by his accumulated experience. How reliable is the emerging picture? Does the combination of time, place and situation seem realistic? For example, if they bring a ketubah written in a region where chuppah has not historically been held, or it contains a strange name that is not typical of the tradition, this raises doubts.

The activities of the St. Petersburg Synagogue to confirm Jewishness take place within the framework of cooperation with the Israeli rabbinate. Rabbinate specialists have enormous experience in checking and analyzing documents, and in difficult cases I always consult with them.

What should I do if I don’t have any documents (lost / burned / ancestors registered as Russian)?

If you are truly Jewish, you can almost always prove it. There's bound to be a clue somewhere.

Grandma registered as Russian? What about your great-great-grandmother?

Are your family documents lost? But there certainly remained records in the synagogue’s metric books made by state rabbis; in the city archives.

Of course, this is not easy and creative process requiring effort. Sometimes you need to go to another city or another country, to sit in the archives.

Those who are hard to find necessary documents, I address to the Moscow organization “Shorashim”. This organization helps prove Jewish origin, and does it free of charge.

Read the story of how a house register helped a St. Petersburg resident prove his Jewishness

According to the Law of Return, any Jew has the right to immigrate to Israel. This right also extends to the child and grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, and the spouse of a Jewish child and grandchild. Except for the man who was Jewish and voluntarily converted his faith. This means that the existence of one Jewish relative within the last three generations is sufficient for the current offspring to be entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Often foreign citizens wishing to immigrate to Israel face difficulties in proving their Jewish roots due to lack of access to relevant evidence. We are talking about people who know that one of their relatives is Jewish, but they lack necessary documents and relevant records proving family relationships with these relatives. There are also situations in which some family members have already immigrated to Israel as Jews and received citizenship under the Law of Return, but the citizens wishing to emigrate are not even aware of this.

In such cases, we offer a unique service that includes genealogical search information in order to determine the whereabouts of Jewish relatives in the world in general and in Israel in particular. And thus provide you with the appropriate evidence to begin the citizenship process. It is important to note that all information is confidential and in accordance with the law of confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship.

Israeli lawyers

Rosenberg and Partners

practicing in Israel since 1975

What is genealogy?

Genealogy– the study of a family tree, a science that studies relationships and the sequence of generations. The research is carried out by collecting fragments of information about family relationships, we are talking about both the living and the deceased. By collecting information, the presence of blood ties is established and family relations between people in order to create a family tree and thereby reveal the ethnic root and origin of any person.

In Jewish culture and religion family tree It has great importance, and therefore practically genealogy is used to determine Jewishness. Jewish genealogy took on special significance after the Holocaust, as the Second World War created a gap in the information available on the Jews of Europe, particularly Eastern European countries, as entire branches of family trees were sometimes destroyed.

How is the research conducted?

Law firm Rosenberg and Co. offers a unique service of punctual and thorough identification of relatives and survivors with the help of various technologies, which includes online databases in Israel and abroad, as well as the use of official archives of the State of Israel. The first screening is done with the help of preliminary information that we receive from individuals interested in receiving the service.

At the end of the search, the client is given a full and detailed report, including all the results obtained from various databases, including databases that do not contain any information.

It is important to note that the research is carried out by professional lawyers in accordance with Israeli law and, in particular, the Israeli rules of evidence. We recommend avoiding independent tests, such as DNA testing, offered free of charge on various websites, because the results of such tests are unacceptable under Israeli law and cannot prove anything even if they are positive.

How long does the process take?

The search period until the full report is received is four months.
It is important to know that search times may vary depending on each individual's specific circumstances. The more preliminary details that are provided, such as full names, dates of birth and death, photographs and documents, the easier and shorter the search will be and the greater the potential for results to be returned.

What is the cost of the service?

Costs vary depending on the search time and resources spent on the research.

What is the result at the end of the study?

At the end of the study, a full and detailed report is provided that best reflects the results of the search across various databases. At the end of the report, the lawyer provides his professional opinion on the continuation of the process and the prospects for obtaining citizenship based on the results of the study.

Our conclusion at the end of the study may be one of the following:

1. IN family tree Jewish roots have not been found → there is no opportunity to prove Jewishness in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Return → there is no basis for continuing the citizenship process.
2. A presumption of evidence of blood ties or family relationships with Jewish relatives is found → there is a reasonable chance of proof of Jewishness → the citizenship process can begin.
3. Found evidence and evidence of Jewish roots in the family tree up to 3 generations ago → there is a real possibility of proving Jewishness in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Return → it is recommended to begin the process of obtaining citizenship.

In conclusion, the process of genealogical research is not trivial, it is a meticulous and complex process that must be carried out by professionals, especially when using the research results for legal purposes such as citizenship. We recommend avoiding independent research and consulting with an attorney at every stage.

Contact a lawyer

Since the appeal and/or file is sent directly to the lawyer, it is completely confidential, in accordance with the law.

Confirmation of Jewishness is a mandatory procedure both for obtaining Israeli citizenship and for self-affirmation in the Jewish community. As history confirms, holding a teudat zehut (Israeli passport) does not make a person a Jew. How to prove nationality, and who helps with this, read below.

First generation Jew

To obtain citizenship in the “promised land”, proof of belonging to this ancient people is required. This can be done by providing documents confirming Jewishness. What it is?

If your mother is Jewish by nationality, and this is indicated in her birth certificate or other identity documents, then you are her direct descendant, and have the right to obtain Israeli citizenship by providing a minimum of documents:

• Passport or other identification document indicating the nationality of the mother (birth certificate, marriage certificate and change of surname, as well as copies of these documents).
• Your identity card, and not only: passport, military ID, if available, work book, a birth metric confirming that this woman is your mother and copies, respectively.
• Photo 3x4.
• A completed application form.

If your mother is no longer alive, then you will additionally need a death certificate and a copy of it. It is clear that any changes in the mother’s life must also be documented. For example, she could get married several times, in which case all marriage certificates and certificates of change of surname will be required. But, in general, having such a closely related confirmation of Jewishness is, for Israel, quite sufficient proof of your right to obtain citizenship.

Jewry is in the blood

If there are no close relatives of Jews, but you are sure that this nationality is in your blood, then you will have to rummage through the archives, look for old letters, photographs, entries in house books, certificates for receiving rations and other documents that indicate nationality “Jewish” grandmother or great-grandmother, “Jewish” father or grandfather, even if they were from the time of the tsarist regime.

Sometimes, in such work, help is needed in confirming Jewishness. On this issue, contact specialized services involved in collecting and processing documents. Sometimes simple information about where one can and should look for such papers directs a person to the required data. The Russian-Israeli Consulting Center "RICC" provides assistance in obtaining Israeli citizenship and passports to all Russians who wish to travel (and not only) to this country for permanent residence.

Leave an application for citizenship

• Birth certificate, where nationality is indicated.
• Certificate of marriage, change of surname, death certificate. If so, a photo of the grave from the Jewish cemetery where it was buried.
• Documents confirming that your grandmother is her direct descendant. That is, a metric where the great-grandmother is listed as her mother. Also marriage and death certificates (if already deceased).
• Documents confirming that your mother is the daughter of your grandmother, etc.

That is, each subsequent generation must confirm its involvement in the previous one, and in all documents there must be a column “Jewish nationality”.

In this case, there will be no problems in obtaining citizenship and obtaining an Israeli passport.

The RICC consultation center helps Russians confirm their Jewishness in Moscow. Great experience in cases of this kind from his consultants, allows candidates for citizenship to successfully pass an interview at the consulate.

Many Russians are interested in how much it costs to confirm Jewishness and obtain citizenship. The price for services starts from 5,000 € per family, but prices are not fixed, so you should contact the center personally and find out information about this specifically for your case. Sometimes the cost turns out to be purely symbolic.

Call the phone number listed on the website or write to us by email. We will contact you and resolve issues regarding obtaining Israeli citizenship and passport.

Nowadays, many are faced with the problem of clarifying and confirming their own nationality. Sometimes this question arises very acutely - if, for example, a person wants to obtain citizenship of another country.

In Soviet times, as is known, nationality could be entered into the passport according to the nationality of the father, and the nationality of the mother, and in general “from words”.
What if you need to find out your true nationality? Very often this is encountered by Jews whose passports indicate: “Ukrainian”, “Russian”, “Latvian”, and what is most difficult is that their parents’ documents also indicate a non-Jewish nationality.

In this case, it is inevitable to turn to archival documents, and more precisely, to metric books. They contain records of acts civil status: birth, death, marriage, divorce. Of course, to confirm Jewish nationality, it is necessary to find a record of the birth, death or marriage of ancestors in the registry register of the synagogue or rabbinate.
Why in in this case need to start? Where should I send my request?

You need to start with requests to the appropriate archive. For example, in Ukrainian archives, as a rule, each archival fund of the rabbinate combines the metric registers of settlements of a separate county in which there were synagogues, and the name of the fund is derived from the name of the county town or town with a relatively large Jewish population, where there were one or more synagogues .
If your ancestors were born and lived in a locality where there was a synagogue, there will be no problems with fulfilling such a request (if the synagogue metric books have been preserved in full). It is more difficult to find information about a person who was born and lived in a locality where there was no synagogue, and he could be registered in any nearby synagogue. In this case, with the help of a directory of settlements, several towns with synagogues closest to the desired settlement are identified, and the necessary information is searched in their registers.

In the metric books of Orthodox churches there are records of the baptism of Jews. Recording "cross" in the metric book Orthodox Church may be a confirmation of Jewish nationality.
Information about Jews can also be found in the collections of administrative institutions, local governments, courts, various organizations and enterprises. Until 1917, nationality was indicated when filling out forms for the service of teachers and doctors; in the documents of educational institutions. In the period 1917-2000, nationality was necessarily indicated in documents on the personnel of institutions, organizations, and enterprises (autobiographies, which were required to be compiled upon entry to work, as well as alphabetical lists of employees with full personal data). Such documents are deposited in state archives only in extreme cases. They are typically stored for 75 years at the place of work.
IN Russian Federation and Kazakhstan there are special regional archives of documents on personnel.

Genealogy, as a science that studies the relationships between family members and kinship in principle, is widely known throughout the world. In our country, its development became possible only after the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991. One of the most relevant areas in this regard is the genealogy of Jews, which has become widespread for a number of reasons. Among them, both interest in one’s roots and the desire to find and prove involvement in the Jewish family in order to gain the opportunity to emigrate to Israel with all the ensuing consequences. By the way, this is the only unique country in the world where the legislative act “On Return” is still in effect, allowing any Jew born in another country to repatriate to his own country. historical homeland and acquire all due rights there. The principle of Israeli citizenship is based on jus sanguinis, in which descent is vital importance(especially on the maternal side). One way or another, genealogical research regarding the formation of a complete tree or the search for roots has not lost its relevance and is a popular type of service today.

Historical excursion into Jewish genealogy

Jewish genealogy in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland is characterized by specific features that are determined by historical events. After the second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place and its territory began to belong to Russian Empire, Catherine the Second in 1971 issued a decree that directly concerned Jews. Its points specified the boundaries of Jewish settlements, as well as trade zones for representatives of this nationality. Meanwhile, not all Jews were equal in their rights. IN late XIX centuries, almost five million Jews were registered and lived in the country, but only a small part of them, namely 200,000, had the right to live in cities, despite the zone of settlement “carried out” by Catherine. Who were the chosen Jews? First of all, these are artisans, as well as recruits who have served, those who managed to get higher education, merchants belonging to the first guild. In connection with this, there was constant Jewish migration; people had to live literally “on wheels,” every now and then, moving from one province to another. The migration process turned out to be a forced measure necessary to escape from all kinds of pogroms, conscription into the army, the desire to avoid paying taxes, and also to find new ways to earn money.

Jewish provinces

That is why modern genealogists know that the Jews of those years could hardly have any permanent affiliation with merchant or bourgeois societies due to the situation in the country. And even if such documents were available, most likely they were a formality. Studies of the genealogy of Jewry make it possible to verify that, having a registration, Jews married and lived in other places, and died and issued death certificates, thirdly. Jews before Catherine were often completely deprived of documents, and therefore information about them is only fragmentary. Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, holding the post of chairman of a specially created commission to study the life of the population of the Western provinces, proposed introducing universal passportization of Jews.

Since the 1860-70s, Jews have been allowed to study everywhere and enroll in Russian-language schools. At the instigation of the reforms initiated by Alexander II, a Jewish press also appeared, which was circulated and published in Hebrew. By the end of the century there were more and more common Jewish names. Soviet power was symbolized by the new regime, which destroyed Jewish communities and put new goal in the form of urbanization of this nation. Jews have often emigrated from the country at all times, choosing Canada, the USA, and other countries of South and North America as their destination. Tracking such migration, taking into account the passage of time and the validity of the “Ship’s Manifest”, which only stated the place of registration, is not an easy task. Currently, many private genealogists are engaged in the search for roots at a professional level; the Society of Jewish Genealogy has been created and is functioning in Moscow.

Modern queries to genealogy

Genealogical services performed by real specialists have developed since the 90s and have become increasingly in demand in the 21st century. At the same time, the concept of time has changed not only the approach to searching for information, but also the requests of modern Clients. More often than others, those who need to formalize an inheritance and prove their belonging to Jewish nationality, or emigrate to Israel and obtain citizenship there, turn to the services of a genealogist. There are a minimal number of those who are, in principle, interested in their own pedigree and the task is set as nothing other than to create a tree practically from scratch.

Difficulties in identifying Jews

At the same time, the tasks of a modern genealogist force one to plunge into the past of those years when Jewry within the USSR was modified and Russified. When trying to discover a relationship with a father named Mikhail, information is voiced that he was actually Moishe. There are plenty of such situations when names were Russified and Jews joined society with Russian surnames that did not actually belong to them. The reason for this was the desire to hide one’s past and nationality.

To obtain citizenship, Jewish kinship must be proven on the maternal side. Situations often arise where a great-grandmother is found in the fourth generation, whose patronymic is Abramovna or Moiseevna. In this case, the genealogist needs to find data about each of the relatives in generations through changing surnames and analyze data on the individual of interest. Taking into account the fact that this could be a second or third marriage. After their first marriage, women did not always change their surnames; they often left the old one or returned their maiden name. These aspects should be considered as additional difficulties when searching for information about a particular relative when compiling a family tree or searching for targeted information. As a result of such work, both Jewish and Slavic roots could be found and the person in question, for example, could be related to the same Don Cossacks, where changing names to nicknames received in the church, as opposed to Jewish synagogues, was welcomed.

Genealogy of Jewry during the Russian Empire and the USSR

Currently, this factor creates many problems when searching for the real roots and origins of man. The genealogy of Jewry, in view of the difficulties that beset the nation itself, scattered throughout the world, is one of the most complex in the world. Family and kinship specialists often have to search for people who have often changed their place of residence, and in some cases, their first and last names, in order to survive. The customer may be interested in both the Soviet and earlier periods, which were marked by a huge tragedy in the life of the Jewish people. The times of World War II are denigrated by the German policy, which implies the extermination of the Jewish race - genocide and holocaust, the victims of which were millions of people living in those years in European countries and the USSR.

Source – concentration camp archives

During the period from 1939 to 1945, Jews in German-occupied territory were the lowest race, and the Nazis exterminated them as best they could, using all methods and means. Great amount Concentration and labor camps killed millions of people. Currently, there is access to documents from the archives of the camps, thanks to which it is possible to learn about the fate of great-grandfathers who lived during the war and were captured by the Nazis. Most of them were unable to endure the torment and hardships; many died as prisoners in camps or were shot by the Nazis. Tragedy in Babi Yar near Kiev became a vivid example of the cynical attitude towards Jews on the part of the Third Reich. Each generation of Jews has its own specificity of data search, which is dictated by the conditions and circumstances of living in those times.

Other sources of information on Jewish genealogy

Having now received any certificate or document confirming, for example, belonging to Jewish nationality, it is unlikely that it will be possible to resolve issues of obtaining an inheritance or citizenship. The reason for this is low level trust on the part of foreign authorities, including courts, in documents received in Russia or any other CIS country. The precedent that took place in the early 90s with the massive falsification of documents of origin created a negative reputation, which still affects the degree of trust in documents. In this regard, archival documentation of past years acquires the greatest weight. Information about different generations of Jews may have a specific nature, suggesting different options for searching for it. Information about citizens of the USSR or Russia who repatriated to Israel can be found in the migration service, as well as in the archives of various organizations. Information from an earlier period, which concerned prisoners in concentration camps, will be provided by organizations that have rights to the archives of prisoners. One way or another, in most cases, documentary information is subject to verification and search in archives. Among them are archival records of civil registry offices, where data on marriage registration is stored, information from maternity hospitals, registration departments at the place of residence, and military registration tables. Within the countries of the post-Soviet space, many archives have been preserved that have both state and municipal significance. Genealogical information contains personal files of employees, where there is a person’s autobiography, information from city hospitals. In some cases, kinship studies help establish the causes of various ailments. A striking example of this is the case when, as a result of his work, a genealogist established that all the men in the family in the last five generations did not live to see 60 years of age due to diseases associated with oncology. Often, Jewish genealogy is a broad concept and to clarify the circumstances and necessary data, a number of sources are required in various localities, cities, countries and continents.

Where do Jews emigrate?

Nowadays, the population of each country is multinational and, to varying degrees, includes people from other countries, who even gather in diasporas for communication and compact living. The trend of recent years differs little from the general concept of migration of immigrants among Jews. Tens of thousands of Jews return to the “promised land” every year, using the “right of blood” to repatriate to their ancestral homeland. Among the leading countries in the outflow of Jews are the CIS countries, in particular Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The events of the Maidan and the Revolution in Square caused a surge in another wave of migration. Then France took the lead in the number of emigrants. Most Jews leave for Israel from Russia. These statistics are quite variable. However, only for Last year In total, more than 30 thousand people went to Israel for permanent residence. Over the last century, Jews have been immigrating both to Europe and to the USA, Canada, Australia, and Israel.

Archive search

DASC private detectives and in-house analytics specialists will be able to achieve the goal with the most minimal set of initial data. Unfortunately, the direction genealogical research is often associated with difficulties, which are characterized by the degree of recency of the search work, as well as the minimum amount of information known about family members. Often and quite obviously, the volume of data decreases as the search deepens in time, since it is not at all easy to find data on Jewish families living before the war, or even more so in tsarist times. Meanwhile, it is thanks to deep archival search that it is possible to find many archival documents, including in storage facilities abroad, which ultimately are of decisive importance in resolving the Customer’s issues. In some situations, the data may be supplemented by personal files and even photographic materials found during the provision of the service. The usefulness of an archival search is represented by its scale: the archives of medical institutions and records of arriving and departing persons, information from migration authorities, which may allow the discovery of traces, are subject to processing. the right person and subsequently identify information of interest about it.

Examinations to prove Jewish origin

All information about family tree is built by DASC detectives on the basis of reliable data, verified and authentic documents. At the same time, the Client receives information and certified copies of documents that he may need when resolving private issues. The search for Jewish roots and confirmation of origin may include both remote work of DASC specialists to identify information, and practical, including expert activities. The presence of an expert center will allow you to verify the authenticity of documents, conduct any type of examination, and even compare DNA samples for kinship and Jewish affiliation, providing the Customer with a full-fledged conclusion. The detective's report represents all the information found in the field of genealogical research of family ties, to be transferred to the initiator upon completion of the work in complete confidentiality.

The professional activities of the DASC detective agency are closely related to genealogy. Detective agency specialists offer all potential Clients the services of qualified genealogists, who will be a detective - a specialist in archival and investigative work. The widest range of tools and capabilities for working with national and municipal archives in many countries of the world allows us to quickly obtain, study and systematize information about people who lived in different times and eras. At the request of the Customer, DASC detectives will implement a set of measures, not only within Russia, Ukraine, but also Europe, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Israel and other countries where Jewish families may have previously lived or are currently located.

The advantage of detective work is not only a scrupulous and professional approach with knowledge of the matter, but also the ability to search and find evidence - facts confirming the degree of relationship, necessary in some cases to achieve goals in the form of obtaining citizenship, registration of inheritance rights, etc.