Less than 40 percent of people who emigrated to Israel in 2018 under the country’s Law of Return are considered halachically Jewish, the latest data has shown.

Figures released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics showed that 30,300 immigrants made aliyah last year. The law, passed in 1950 and broadened in 1970, allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, or who is married to someone Jewish, to apply for Israeli citizenship.

However, under the criteria of the strictly orthodox Israeli rabbinate, only those who can prove unbroken matrilineal Jewish descent are considered Jewish according to halacha (Jewish law).

Of the 30,300, only 12,600 (39 percent) fit that criteria, with the remaining 17,700 classified as “other”, a big fall fromn 2017, when 52 percent of emigrants were deemed halachically Jewish.

Under Israeli law, only the country’s strictly orthodox rabbinate are able to carry out recognised conversions, with those willing to go through the process subjected to significant delays and difficulties.

Marriages between someone classified as halachically Jewish and someone who is not cannot take place in Israel, because the rabbinate will not sanction them.

The strictly orthodox political parties in Israel’s Knesset have worked to block any change which would take away the rabbinate’s authority.

For decades, tens of thousands of Israelis have sought to circumvent this problem using a loophole in the country’s legal system, which recognises marriages between Israelis performed outside of Israel by holding their weddings in Cyprus.

With population growth and immigration, approximately 300,000 to 400,000 Israeli citizens are now classified as “other” – Jewish enough to have claimed Israeli citizenship, but not enough to be recognised as such under the country’s orthodox system.

Rabbi Seth Farber, the head of Itim, an Israeli non-profit founded to improve the way Israel regulates Jewish identity, told Israeli media outlets that easing the conversion process would help solve the problem.

“These people are part of the body of the Jewish people around the world, and the Jewish people have a responsibility to provide them with a homeland for historical reasons; this is part of the justification for the State of Israel,” he said.

“Instead of trying to tamper with moral, historical and political realities, we should spend time trying to encourage conversion and not eliminate it."

Rabbi Farber, who is also the founder of Giyur K’Halacha, a private orthodox non-governmental conversion court network, described it as a “Jewish and democratic duty” to change the current system.

“These are people who serve in the IDF, pay taxes and are an inseparable part of the Jewish-Israeli social fabric,” he told the Israeli Ynet news site.

“This policy severely harms the acclimatisation of the immigrants, harms their Jewish identity and turns a blind eye to their problems. Giyur K’Halacha provides an ethical solution for them”, he said.