FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS DISAPPOINTED WITH FEDERAL COURT RULING ON JERUSALEM PASSPORT LAWSUIT

Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, stated its disappointment with the ruling by a U.S. federal court rejecting who threw out a lawsuit brought by an American couple on behalf of their son who was born in Jerusalem in 2002. The State Department has refused comply with a duly enacted law requiring the State Department to record Israel as the place of birth in passports for American citizens born in Jerusalem.

The judge dismissed the case on grounds that the State Department’s refusal to list Israel on the boy’s passport would present the court a “nonjusticiable political question” and the courts are required to turn it away. The State Department contended that making the boy’s place of birth, as “Jerusalem, Israel” would upset long-standing American policy that the sovereignty of Jerusalem is an issue to be determined in peace talks

Nathan J. Diament, public policy director for the Union, issued the following statement:

The Orthodox Union is disappointed with the ruling by the District Court. The law requires the State Department to record Israel as the place of birth in passports for American citizens born in Jerusalem. The judge was not asked to determine the status of Jerusalem, only to require the State Department to comply with the law, which is consistent with American Policy as enacted by Congress. We hope this ruling will be reversed on appeal.

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