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Civil Marriage Is Issue In Constructing Israel's Coalition Government

By Howard M. Friedman

In Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu continues in complex negotiations to build a coalition government. One piece of the complexity comes from competing demands from the Yisrael Beiteinu party and religious parties on the issue of civil marriage. Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union who considered themselves Jewish there, do not meet the halachic (Jewish religious law) requirements to be classified as Jewish in Israel. To be considered Jewish by Israel's Chief Rabbinate, the individual must either have been born of a Jewish mother, or have converted under strict Orthodox standards. If both parties to a marriage do not belong to the same recognized religious community-- Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Druze-- they cannot be married by religious authorities within the country who have a monopoly on dealing with family status issues. (Background.) Instead they have to travel abroad to marry, and then the marriage is recognized in Israel.

Yisrael Beiteinu has strong support from Russian immigrants, and its platform has called for the addition of civil marriage-- as an alternative to marriage through the Chief Rabbinate-- within Israel. Traditionally religious parties have opposed civil marriage. Yesterday, Arutz Sheva and the Jerusalem Post however both reported that leading Orthodox rabbis have agreed to a compromise that may permit Netanyahu's coalition to include both Yisrael Beiteinu and smaller religious parties such as United Torah Judaism. Civil marriage would be permitted, but only if husband and wife both affirm their status as non-Jews before a rabbinical court. This solution, though, will not solve the problem for the large number of affected couples, where one is halachically Jewish and the other is a Russian immigrant whose mother was not Jewish.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).