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"On April 28, 2008, immigration police arrested German student Barbara Ludwig and prepared to deport her for failing to maintain a valid student visa to continue her graduate studies at Hebrew University. According to Ludwig and her attorneys at the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), she made repeated attempts to renew her student visa but was denied because the Interior Ministry determined that she was a Messianic Jew. In an April 29 article, the Jerusalem Post described letters it had seen addressed to Ludwig from the Interior Ministry in which the ministry criticized her alleged missionary activity."

"Most Orthodox Jews believed that mixed gender prayer services violate the precepts of Judaism. As a result, such services were prohibited at, among other places, the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, where men and women must use separate areas to visit and pray. Women also were not allowed to conduct any prayers at the Western Wall wearing prayer shawls, which are typically worn by men, and could not read from Torah scrolls."

"The JIJ also alleged that officials in the Interior Ministry denied services to certain citizens based on their religious beliefs. The JIJ’s legal defense caseload for such cases contained approximately 143 open files during the reporting period, including numerous cases dealing with attempts by the Interior Ministry to revoke the citizenship of persons discovered holding Messianic or Christian beliefs, or to deny certain national services--such as welfare benefits or passports--to such persons."

"In other cases the JIJ alleged that the Interior Ministry refused to process immigration applications from persons entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return if it was determined such persons held Christian or Messianic Jewish religious beliefs. In one such case, the JIJ released a letter received by one of its clients, in which the Interior Ministry told the client--a legal resident otherwise eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return--that it was rejecting his application for status and ordering him to leave the country in 14 days because he "was involved in Messianic faith... (and) a person who is eligible for the Right of Return who advances the Messianic faith acts illegally." Responding to a petition filed by the JIJ on behalf of 12 applicants for immigration, the High Court ruled on April 16, 2008, that the Government could not deny status to a person eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return on the basis of that person's identification as a Messianic Jew, as long as that person was not also considered Jewish under the Orthodox definition."