Because of their religious beliefs, Ariel and Shayla Hyde, a young married couple from Haifa, are two among many in Israel and abroad who find themselves targets of what amounts to a crusade by Israel’s Ministry of Interior to protect the nation from the “wrong kind of Jews.”

Ariel’s parents, Richard and Carolyn Hyde, are also longtime targets of a religiously motivated quest to banish them as are, more recently, Ariel’s brother, Avi, and his wife, Liora.

Historically controlled by Shas, a small, ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious political party in Israel, the MOI regularly employs administrative bullying and quasi-legal maneuvering to obstruct aliyah (immigration to Israel) and deny citizenship to those who do not share their beliefs. In some cases, they also attempt to revoke the existing legal citizen status of family members of those targeted.

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