- Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israeli couples say "I don't" to Orthodox Jewish weddings
- Date: 20th November 2013
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 19, 2013) (REUTERS) MICHAL MINSKY AND SHAI ZA'ARUR, A COUPLE WHO DID NOT WANT TO MARRY VIA ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBINATE, ENTERING OFFICE OF ORGANISATION THAT HOLDS ALTERNATIVE CEREMONIES SIGN ON DOOR READING IN HEBREW "NEW FAMILY" COUPLE SITTING WITH LAWYER AHEAD OF SIGNING CONTRACT CONTRACT AS SEEN ON COMPUTER SCREEN VARIOUS OF COUPLE SIGNING CONTRACT COUPLE KISSING "COUPLEDOM CARD" BEING ISSUED IRIT ROSENBLUM, FOUNDER OF "NEW FAMILY" ORGANISATION, HANDING CARD TO COUPLE WOMAN DEALING WITH PAPERWORK ON DESK (SOUNDBITE) (English) MICHAL MINSKY, GOT MARRIED IN ALTERNATIVE CEREMONY NOT RECOGNISED BY ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBINATE, SAYING: "We actually got married, about a month ago, with a Rabbi but it was reformic Rabbi because we wanted to have something that has to do with the Jewish tradition but with its more progressed and beautiful sides and not with the old fashioned and sides that we don't really relate to." ROSENBLUM BRINGING WINE GLASSES TO HOLD TOAST WITH THE COUPLE JERUSALEM (RECENT) (REUTERS) ZIV MAOR, ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBINATE SPOKESMAN, WALKING IN CORRIDOR WITH RABBI MAOR AND RABBI LOOKING IN BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ZIV MAOR, ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBINATE SPOKESMAN, SAYING: "Our responsibility is for all the generations of Jews before us and those who will come after us. If in our generation, under our watch, a situation of discontinuity will be created, it's an unbearable responsibility. Our responsibility is to keep the continuation of the Jewish people, on its survival. We work here in full awareness that if the chain will be broken, if we will allow an option of assimilation which may result in the diminishing of the Jewish people, it is our responsibility." MORE OF MAOR TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ZIV MAOR, ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBINATE SPOKESMAN, SAYING: "Rabbinical law guides us in a very clear way on who is Jewish and who is not and our work is based on these criteria. We do not have permission from past or future generations to stray even a hair's breadth from those criteria."
- Embargoed: 5th December 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAA46FCWOVUWBWNNM5U75VCBU8L
- Story Text: For most Israelis, there is one legal way to get married in the Jewish state - God's way.The law sanctions only Orthodox rabbis to perform Jewish weddings in the Holy Land, and popular opposition is growing to that restriction and to what some Israelis see as a religious stranglehold on the most precious moments of their lives.
Facebook pages have recently been popping up, with defiant couples calling on others to boycott the rabbinate, the Orthodox religious authority that issues marriage licenses in Israel.
A month ago, Michal Minsky, a 35 year old Tel Aviv resident, married her husband in an alternative ceremony performed in Israel by a non-Orthodox rabbi.
"We actually got married, about a month ago, with a Rabbi but it was reformic Rabbi because we wanted to have something that has to do with the Jewish tradition but with its more progressed and beautiful sides and not with the old fashioned and sides that we don't really relate to," she said a few minutes after signing a legal contract with her husband and receiving "coupledome card" issued by "New Family" organisation in Tel Aviv.
Weddings such as Michal's are not against the law in Israel, but they are not recognised as valid by the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for registering marital status in the national identity card every Israeli is required to carry.
In a twist in the law, the ministry will register as married an Israeli couple that weds - even in a non-religious ceremony -abroad, mainly in nearby Cyprus and the Czech Republic, outside the purview of the Israeli rabbinate.
But Minsky and her husband decided against that option.
No formal records are kept on the officially invalid civil ceremonies held in Israel. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, nearly 40,000 Jewish couples married via the Rabbinate in 2011. About 9,000 couples registered that year as having married overseas.
Secular-religious tensions have simmered in Israel, which defines itself as a "Jewish and democratic state", since its establishment in 1948.
Immigrants to Israel, which since its inception has appealed to Jews around the world to live in the Jewish state, can find marriage through its Rabbinate a gruelling process.
Anyone wed by the Rabbinate is required to provide evidence of being Jewish, usually a simple and quick process.
But when it comes to new immigrants, the Rabbinate requires an affidavit, usually from an Orthodox rabbi in their home country, attesting they were born to a Jewish mother - the Orthodox criterion for determining if someone is a Jew.
And, Orthodox authorities in Israel can pile on more problems by requiring additional documentation proving that a bride or bridegroom's grandmother was Jewish.
Israel's government is less strict in determining "who is a Jew" and subsequently eligible to immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship under its Law of Return: proof that one has at least one Jewish grandparent is enough.
The Rabbinate says it is charged with a task vital for the survival of the Jewish people - preventing intermarriage and assimilation.
Ziv Maor, the Rabbinate's spokesman, said it was the strict adherence to Orthodox ritual law and practices that bonded Jews across the globe and set common rules for all.
"Our responsibility is for all the generations of Jews before us and those who will come after us. If in our generation, under our watch, a situation of discontinuity will be created, it's an unbearable responsibility. Our responsibility is to keep the continuation of the Jewish people, on its survival. We work here in full awareness that if the chain will be broken, if we will allow an option of assimilation which may result in the diminishing of the Jewish people, it is our responsibility," Maor said.
"Rabbinical law guides us in a very clear way on who is Jewish and who is not and our work is based on these criteria. We do not have permission from
past or future generations to stray even a hair's breadth from those criteria," he added.
According to the Rabbinate, only two percent of the men and women who apply to it for a marriage licence are turned down because they are found not to be Jewish.
There are other groups to whom marriage is forbidden by rabbinical law.
Same-sex marriage, as in other religions, is out of the question as far as the Rabbinate is concerned. Israel's Interior Ministry recognises gay marriage - but only if it is done abroad, in a country where it is legal.
Margot Madeson-Stern, a business consultant, was wed in Israel by a non-Orthodox rabbi at a celebration attended by more than 300 guests. The ceremony had no legal foundation in Israel.
"I want a Rabbi, I'm Jewish, I want a Jewish wedding. My family, my friends, my tradition, it's how I grew up. The Rabbinate does not speak to me or recognise me, not in the sense of Jew - my mother is Jewish - but I married a woman. So that rubric doesn't fit their box. Civil marriage is necessary for anyone who doesn't fit in that box. And i chose to live in Israel, I made Aliyah in 2007, Judaism is very important to me," she said.
She later travelled with her wife to New York for another wedding ceremony. New York recognises gay marriages, so Israel's Interior Ministry did the same, registering them as a couple.
At least two parties in Israel's governing coalition are promoting a bill to allow civil marriage in Israel. One of them is Yesh Atid, which tapped into anti-religious sentiment in last January's national election and finished in second place.
But tradition could die hard in Israel. A poll published in November in the Israeli newspaper, Maariv, showed that while 41 percent of Jewish Israelis supported Yesh Atid's Civil Union bill, 47 percent objected.
Such bills have been floated at Israel's parliament before. But for the first time in years, ultra-Orthodox parties, which oppose civil marriage, are not in the government.
Yesh Atid believes it has enough votes from lawmakers both across the board to pass the law in the coming months. The Rabbinate says it will oppose the measure strongly. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None