Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the 2002 law passed by the U.S. Congress, which ordered the State Department to allow U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem to record on their passports that Israel is their place of birth.
The case in question, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, concerns Menachem Zivotofsky, the son of two American citizens residing in Jerusalem, who was born in Jerusalem and thus entitled to a U.S. passport. In 1995, Congress passed legislation saying the U.S. should recognize a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Shortly before Menachem’s birth in 2002, lawmakers passed new provisions urging the president to take steps to move the embassy to Jerusalem and allowing Americans born in Jerusalem to have their place of birth listed as Israel on their passports. Zivotofsky sued the State Department to implement this law.
The Orthodox Union, together with other leading Orthodox Jewish organizations, filed a “Friend of the Court” brief, authored by noted attorney Nathan Lewin, in support of the Zivotofsky family.
Read the full press release on the OU Advocacy website.
The full text of the amicus brief can be read here.