Yesh Atid's Lipman to trade US citizenship for MK card

Eight years after making aliyah from Silver Spring, MD, rabbi becomes first American -born Knesset member to give up passport

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A dual American-Israeli citizen who was elected to the Knesset will have to give up his American citizenship when he takes office.

Rabbi Dov Lipman, elected Jan. 22 to the Knesset from the Yesh Atid party, is the third US citizen to serve in the Knesset and the first to voluntarily give up his citizenship, Haaretz reported.

Lipman is No. 17 on the list of the party headed by former television personality Yair Lapid; the party garnered the second highest vote total.

Lipman, of Beit Shemesh, immigrated to Israel from Silver Spring, Md., eight years ago.

Rabbi Meir Kahane was stripped of his US citizenship in 1984 after being sworn in to the Knesset. His attempts to regain his US citizenship failed.

Other Israeli Americans who gave up their citizenship to serve the Israeli government include Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, and Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador in Washington.

Israel’s Basic Law requires that a Knesset member with a second citizenship do “everything required on his part to be released from such citizenship.”