 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2019) |
Marriage in Israel is regulated by the religious courts of recognized confessional communities. However, civil marriages, including same-sex marriages, performed under foreign jurisdictions are recognized by Israeli law. [1]
In 1953, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that marriages performed outside Israel conducted by a rabbinical court in accordance with halakha must be recognized in Israel. [2] The case before the court involved a couple who were not residents or citizens of Israel at the time of their marriage. However, commentators have noted that the case did not deal with a situation where one or both of the couple were residents or citizens of Israel, nor with a civil marriage abroad.
The recognition of civil marriages is of special significance in Judaism because Orthodox Judaism has various prohibitions involving marriages. [3] This includes, but is not limited to, restrictions on marriages involving a mamzer and by kohenim. Such marriages will not be sanctioned by religious authorities, and, as there is no form of civil marriage, cannot be formally entered into in Israel. The couples in these prohibited marriage situations sometimes marry overseas, mostly in Cyprus, which is near Israel. [4]
In 1962, the Supreme Court determined[ citation needed ] that the Ministry of the Interior must register married couples who married in a civil marriage abroad, even if either or both of the couple were citizens of Israel. The act of registration is for statistical purposes only, and not a recognition of the personal status of the couple, as registration does not determine the validity of the marriage.
In 2006, the Supreme Court voted 6-1 to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other countries. [5]
In a judgement given in November 2006,[ citation needed ] retired President of the Supreme Court Aharon Barak ruled that the recognition of a civil marriage entered into abroad extended to its validity and recognition as a marriage for the purpose of Israeli law, overruling a rabbinical court, which had determined that a religious court had the authority to decide the validity or otherwise of a civil marriage entered into abroad.
In 2010, Israel passed the Civil Union Law for Citizens with no Religious Affiliation, 2010, allowing a couple to form a civil union in Israel if they are both registered as officially not belonging to any religion. [6]
In 2017, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal held that although Israel recognizes "reputed spouses" as a legal union, the union is not a marriage under Israeli law, and therefore, Florida law does not recognize the relationship as a marriage. [7]
In September 2022, an Israeli court in Lod recognized civil and religious marriages solemnized on Zoom videoconference by officiants in Utah as legal. [8] The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Israel on 7 March 2023, with the court siding against the Interior Ministry who appealed the lower court's ruling. [9]
Since the establishment of the rabbinical courts, the status quo agreement has been strongly supported by the religious community, but criticized by others. The main argument of the supporters of the system is that a change of the status quo agreement will divide the Jewish people in Israel between those who marry according to Jewish religious standards and those who marry in a civil marriage. Civil marriages would not be registered or scrutinized by the rabbinate. In certain circumstances, such as when a woman who was previously married according to Jewish religious standards entered into a civil marriage without obtaining a religiously-valid divorce decree (get), the children produced by civil marriages could be considered illegitimate or mamzerim, which would prohibit them from marrying any Jew who was not also a mamzer. Opponents of the status quo agreement consider the system to be contrary to people's civil rights.
In 2011, roughly 9,000 couples registered with the Central Bureau of Statistics that they were married overseas. [10]
Although most of the debate relating to civil marriage in Israel is conducted in the Jewish community, the issue has the same implications for all other recognized religious communities in Israel.
Supporters of the status quo agreement argue that:
Supporters of civil marriage in Israel argue that the status quo agreement violates the rights of Israeli citizens by:
Supporters of civil marriage also argue that the status quo agreement is in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16, which states that "men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family."
After Rabbi Dov Haiyun was arrested for performing an unsanctioned wedding, the director of Israeli civil rights organization Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel) called for the "immediate legislation of a civil marriage law". [11]
At the times when people petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel, trying to convince the Supreme Court to form an authority of civil marriages, the Supreme Court refused to do so, declaring that this was the responsibility of the Knesset. In cases when people requested to proclaim themselves as being "non-religious", in order that the court would be able to recognize his or her marriage according to an acceptable civil judgment, the court rejected their assertion. The only time in which the Court determined that the Ministry had to recognize a marriage between a Cohen and a divorcee was when it was based on the religious law that determines that those are forbidden marriages from the start but allowable post factum. [ citation needed ]
Over time, a number of alternative methods have been used by couples who wished to marry without a religious ceremony, or who were unable to marry in Israel.
One method is to marry outside Israel; nearby Cyprus became the most convenient venue for many Israelis. Paraguay, which allows marriage without the presence of the couple to be arranged by the Paraguayan consulate in Tel Aviv, is another jurisdiction used.
Another approach is to resort to what is called a "common-law marriage". A common-law marriage entitles the partners to most of the rights of a formally married couple in relation to inheritance, pensions and the landlord and tenant matters. However, the status of common-law marriage is not equal to that of formal marriage in many fields. For example, exemption from military service for a married woman only applies to a formally married woman.
Jurist Frances Radi supports these attempts to "bypass the law in legal ways", but points out that the necessity of an Israeli to resort to the use of a foreign state in order to marry diminishes the value of the alternative ways to marry. In her view, "the existence of those minor alternatives only points out the lack of the respect to secular values that the Israeli judiciary demonstrates".
Others, such as Rabbi Chuck Davidson, conduct religious weddings outside of the framework of the state. [12] Under Israeli law, Davidson can be jailed for up to two years, although this law has not yet been tested by the courts.
In the late 1960s, the Independent Liberal party attempted to enable civil marriages for couples who could not marry in rabbinical courts; however, this attempt caused a governmental crisis.
The left-wing Meretz party, and its historical component parties Mapam, Ratz, and Shinui, have been trying to allow civil marriages in Israel for a long time, but without success. At the start of the 21st century, several rabbis (including the chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar) said that the great alienation that this situation creates does not serve the religious interest. As part of the coalition agreement for Ariel Sharon's second government, the Shinui party demanded that a legal solution be found for those who could not marry within Israel. A committee formed to find a solution for this problem came up with the "coupling arrangement" solution (ברית הזוגיות). This committee, which was led by Israeli parliament members Roni Bar-On, Yuri Stern, Nissan Slomianski, and Roni Brizon, and represented parties from the wide political religious spectrum from the Shinui party to the Mafdal party, eventually submitted a bill by which there would be a separate status recognized for people who came in the pact of duality,[ clarification needed ] which would not be considered as "marriage", but would be as similar as possible to the marriage institution. The bill never reached further legislation procedures.
In July 2007, Israel's Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and the chief rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar reached an agreement on a limited bill for civil marriages in Israel, which would apply only to the marriage of Israelis who do not belong to any recognized religious community. [13] Such a bill was introduced by Yisrael Beiteinu in 2009, eventually passing the Knesset in May 2010; this bill, however, only grants "couplehood union" status to couples who both declared non-religious status. [14]
Halakha, also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and halocho, is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments (mitzvot), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch. Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation of it might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root which means "to behave". Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs, it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life.
Marriage in Judaism is the documentation of a contract between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman in which God is involved. In Judaism, a marriage can end either because of a divorce document given by the man to his wife, or by the death of either party. Certain details, primarily as protections for the wife, were added in Talmudic times.
The relationships between the various denominations of Judaism are complex and include a range of trends from the conciliatory and welcoming to hostile and antagonistic.
Conversion to Judaism is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. The procedure and requirements for conversion depend on the sponsoring denomination. Furthermore, a conversion done in accordance with one Jewish denomination is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination. Normally, though not always, the conversions performed by more stringent denominations are recognized by less stringent ones, but not the other way around. A formal conversion is also sometimes undertaken by individuals whose Jewish ancestry is questioned or uncertain, even if they were raised Jewish, but may not actually be considered Jews according to traditional Jewish law.
A beth din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system. Today, it is invested with legal powers in a number of religious matters both in Israel and in Jewish communities in the diaspora, where its judgments hold varying degrees of authority in matters specifically related to Jewish religious life.
"Who is a Jew?" is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, genealogical, and personal dimensions. Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism follow Jewish law (Halakha), deeming people to be Jewish if their mothers are Jewish or if they underwent a halakhic conversion. Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent as well as conversion. Karaite Judaism predominantly follows patrilineal descent as well as conversion.
In the Hebrew Bible and Jewish religious law, a mamzer is a person who is born as the result of certain forbidden relationships or incest, or the descendant of such a person. Mamzer status is not synonymous with the traditional western definition of illegitimacy, since it does not include children born to unmarried mothers.
An agunah or aguna is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by halakha. The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is missing in action. It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses, or is unable, to grant her a divorce.
A get, ghet, or gett is a document in Jewish religious law which effectuates a divorce between a Jewish couple. The term is also used to refer to the divorce itself. The get is a 12-line document written in Aramaic. The requirements for a get include that the document be presented by a husband to his wife. The essential part of the get is a very short declaration: "You are hereby permitted to all men". The effect of the get is to free the woman from the marriage, and consequently she is free to marry another and that the laws of adultery no longer apply. The get also returns to the wife the legal rights that a husband held in regard to her.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two Chief Rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious arrangements for Israel's Jews. It also responds to halakhic questions submitted by Jewish public bodies in the Diaspora. The Council sets, guides, and supervises agencies within its authority.
Marriage in Israel is regulated by the religious courts of recognized confessional communities, none of which perform inter-faith or same-sex marriage. Domestic civil marriage is not recognized in Israel; however, civil marriages performed in foreign jurisdictions, including same-sex marriages, are recognized with full marital rights under Israeli law.
Conservative Judaism views halakha as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish beliefs and practices, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws (kashrut), and Jewish medical ethics. Institutionally, the Conservative movement rules on Jewish law both through centralized decisions, primarily by the Rabbinical Assembly and its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and through congregational rabbis at the local level. Conservative authorities produced voluminous Responsa literature.
The Lieberman clause is a clause included in a ketubah, created by and named after Talmudic scholar and Jewish Theological Seminary of America professor Saul Lieberman, that stipulates that divorce will be adjudicated by a modern bet din in order to prevent the problem of the agunah, a woman not allowed to remarry religiously because she had never been granted a religious divorce. It was first introduced in the 1950s by rabbis in Judaism's Conservative movement.
In Israel, marriage can be performed only under the auspices of the religious community to which couples belong, and inter-faith marriages performed within the country are not legally recognized. However, marriages performed abroad or remotely from Israel must be registered by the government. Matrimonial law is based on the millet or confessional community system which had been employed in the Ottoman Empire, including what is now Israel, was not modified during the British Mandate of the region, and remains in force in the State of Israel.
The Jewish prenuptial agreement has been developed in recent times with the stated intent of keeping the Jewish woman from becoming an agunah in cases where the husband refuses to grant her a get. Without such an agreement, Jewish marriages cannot be dissolved without the consent and cooperation of both spouses. This new type of prenuptial agreement makes provisions for the possibility of divorce. By setting up rules prior to the marriage in the form of a contract, both spouses have an interest to negotiate a divorce in a dignified manner, and get-refusal is avoided.
Sexual orientation has been a pivotal issue for Conservative Judaism since the 1980s. A major Jewish denomination in the U.S., Conservative Judaism has wrestled with homosexuality and bisexuality as a matter of Jewish law and institutional policy. As with other branches of Judaism debating the acceptability of sexual orientations other than heterosexuality, Conservative Jews faced both long-standing, rabbinic prohibitions on homosexual conduct as well as increasing demands for change in the movement's policies toward gays, bisexuals, and lesbians. Previously, the Conservative movement had changed its policies toward women, for example, by allowing the ordination of women as rabbis in 1983. Similarly, the Conservative leadership has been asked to stop discriminating against gay, bisexual, and lesbian people. This goal has been partially completed with the approval of the ordination of gay, bisexual, and lesbian rabbis in 2006 and of same-sex marriage ceremonies under Jewish law in 2012; However, the Conservative decision did not call same-sex marriages kiddushin, the traditional Jewish legal term for marriage, because that act of consecration is nonegalitarian and gender-specific. In the traditional kiddushin ceremony, a pair of blessings is recited and the bridegroom gives his bride a ring, proclaiming that he is marrying his bride “according to the laws of Moses and Israel.”.
In Israel, the term status quo refers to a political understanding between secular and religious political parties not to alter the communal arrangement in relation to religious matters. The established Jewish religious communities in Israel desire to maintain and promote the religious character of the state, while the secular community sometimes wishes to reduce the impact of religious regulations in their everyday lives. Occasionally, one political side seeks to make changes to inter-communal arrangements, but these are often met by political opposition from the other side. The status quo preserves the established religious relations in Israel, and only small changes are usually made.
Yuval Cherlow is a Modern Orthodox rabbi and posek. He is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hesder Amit Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv, Israel. Cherlow was one of the founders of Tzohar, an organization of religious Zionist Orthodox rabbis in Israel.
Hashgacha Pratit (השגחה-פרטית) is an independent, Israel-based organization with both female and male clergy that self-describes as providing an alternative form of Orthodox Rabbinical authority and social activism group dedicated to challenging the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel over religious ceremonies and practices, through the provision of private religious ceremonies. Founded in 2012 by Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz in Jerusalem, Israel, it offers alternative halachic services in life-cycle events, rabbinical training, and other courses in religious education. It has provided private kashrut supervision for restaurants, worked on raising public awareness and finding loopholes in the laws to circumvent the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly, first regarding Kashrut, by leading the movement to open the kosher food market to competition, and today regarding Orthodox wedding ceremonies.