[anotherview]

Yes, the idea was to allow a very liberal definition of "who is a Jew" to allow those living Jewish lives and facing persecution for it to enter Israel. The net result has been to let in a lot of (about 250,000) non-Jews. IMHO, it is greatly abused by people who are not Zionists, who do not really identify as Jews, and who don't really belong in the country. They had to claim to be Jewish and to have a rabbi sign a letter to that effect to immigrate, or that, at least according to Israeli law, is how it's supposed to be done.

The issue of "who is a Jew" is a hotly debated one in Israel. The intention was NEVER to let in non-Jews.

[RussianConservative]

So all "real" jews is zionists (a rather socialist philosphy born of revolutionary times and backed by Stalin in '48)? Also, Israeli politicians must be stupidist people in the world if they think that one grandparent Right of Return will bring in only well blooded or fully religious Zionists to Israel. No the real reason of the law was to bring as many none arabs with any amount of Jewish blood...whether Jew of Russian by nationality as possible...as Arabs out breed Jews like nuts.

By the way, most Hisidics and Orthodox Jews not in least Zionists...why? Because Zionist is nationalistic not religious and most peoples living on Kabutzies atheists.