Haredi Chief Rabbis Order Stricter Marriage Restrictions

The new directives demand that marriage registrars send any person whose parents’ wedding was not performed by a rabbinate-recognized body to a full-fledged “inquiry into their Judaism” at a rabbinical court. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis fall into that category. All expenses related to this inquiry must be paid by the bride and groom.

New marriage license guidelines
Reform leader: Chief Rabbinate tightening its grip on weddings.
By JONAH MANDEL • Jerusalem Post    

New directives issued by the Chief Rabbinate demand that marriage registrars send any person whose parents’ wedding was not performed by a rabbinate-recognized body to a full-fledged “inquiry into their Judaism” at a rabbinical court.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, including many immigrants – from Western countries as well as from the former Soviet Union – fall into that category.

The guidelines were issued on Sunday to all city rabbis and marriage registrars and are intended for immediate implementation. They are directed at applicants for marriage licenses whose parents were not married by a rabbi in Israel, or by a rabbi abroad whose name is on the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s list of recognized Orthodox community rabbis.

In addition, the letter accompanying the directives states that marriage registrars are “permitted” to refer even those who meet the above noted conditions to such an inquiry.

At the same time, however, registrars may allow the wedding of people who have “the verdict of a rabbinical court confirming their Judaism,” even if their parents were not wed by an approved rabbi. Senior sources in the Chief Rabbinate told The Jerusalem Post this was a reference to converts.

The guidelines are an attempt to regulate procedures that have varied from registrar to registrar for years, and come in response to a High Court of Justice petition by ITIM – The Jewish Life Information Center; Maj.-Gen. (res.) Elazar Stern; convert Alina Sardiyokov and her husband Maxim; and others.

As head of the IDF Manpower Directorate, the modern-Orthodox Stern oversaw a program that allowed non-Jewish soldiers to convert to Judaism.

Two months ago, the plaintiffs filed a petition against the rabbinate and four stringent city rabbis, who have repeatedly refused to grant marriage licenses to Israelis who converted to Judaism in Orthodox, state-recognized religious courts.

Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, head of the office of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, told the Post that the new directives, which were recently formulated by the Chief Rabbinical Council, ensured that marriage registrars would no longer be able to reject state-approved conversions – the problem at the core of the petition.

However, the new regulations appear to officially elevate the Chief Rabbinate’s religious standards in accepting an individual’s Judaism. If in the past, someone seeking a marriage license could be approved by the registrar on the spot, the new procedures take that authority from the registrar and dictate a full rabbinical court session, which the applicant’s mother (and, if possible, maternal grandmother) must attend.

The same inquiry will apply to those who were not married by a body recognized by the rabbinate and who now want a divorce.

Expenses involved in the rabbinical court inquiries – such as testimonies by experts on various communities or laboratory examinations of wedding certificates – will be borne by those undergoing the mandatory procedure. In addition, the rabbinical courts may charge the litigant for “other expenses, including for the benefit of the state.”

The guidelines do, however, stress the aspiration to conduct no more than one session on each case, where possible, and note that such an inquiry will be final in determining the Judaism of the subject, as far as the Chief Rabbinate is concerned.

As such, while apparently attempting to solve a predicament of a relatively small scope, the directives mean that hundreds of thousands of Israelis – primarily from the former Soviet Union – whose parents were wed in non-Jewish ceremonies or by rabbis who are not recognized by the rabbinate, will have to go through a rabbinical court inquiry to get marriage licenses. Until now, marriage registrars had the authority to approve the applicants, and while they could send them to a rabbinical court for an inquiry, they usually refrained from doing so.

ITIM pointed out to the Post that there was no mention of converts in the document, and that the “verdict of a rabbinical court confirming their Judaism” could refer to a rabbinical court inquiry into Judaism, and not necessarily a civil conversion certificate signed by the head of the State Conversion Authority.

Conversions in Israel may take place in either a designated conversion court, a military court, or a regular rabbinical court, all of which are under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate. In all cases, the convert receives a certificate from the State Conversion Authority.

Most conversions in Israel take place at the special conversion courts rather than at rabbinical courts.

ITIM also noted that even if the converts were meant to be exempt from an inquiry in principle, the clause permitting registrars to refer anyone to a rabbinical court could nullify that in practice.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, said the term “rabbinical courts” did not include the conversion courts in its accepted meaning and usage. He called the new directives illegal and expressed confidence they would be canceled.

“This is an attempt by the Chief Rabbinate to strengthen its grip over the rabbis conducting weddings,” Kariv told the Post on Monday. “If the extremist and haredi rabbinate thinks the Israeli public will let them conduct a massive operation of inquiry into the Judaism of a quarter of the population, they are wrong. These new directives will not pass.”

He noted other clauses in the document that require an inquiry into the Judaism of people seeking divorce, who were not married by an approved rabbi, and the fact that the person referred to the rabbinical court would have to cover the expenses of the procedure.

Kariv and Anat Hoffman, head of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, sent an urgent letter to Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday, demanding that they cancel the new procedures on the grounds that they were not issued by the justice minister and approved by the Knesset Law Committee, as the law demands on matters of marriage and divorce.

“Due to the severity of the ramifications of these procedures, we will act with all the means available to us to cancel the directives and let the citizens of Israel marry and divorce as they should without any delays, unnecessary expenses and humiliations,” the letter read.

“This is another attempt to add another layer of bureaucracy. Instead of the chief rabbinate playing a role in bringing people closer to Judaism, they’re succeeding in creating a feeling of estrangement," said Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky Tuesday night.

Some American Jewish organizations were particularly incensed by the new instructions.

“We await clarifications, but at first glance, speaking out of a deep desire for intra-Jewish dialogue, this looks like a power grab of breathtaking scale,” said Dr. Ed Rettig of the American Jewish Committee. “We may hope and pray that someone in the system will wake up to the dangers [that] this new policy [poses] to the credibility of the Chief Rabbinate in the world Jewish community.”

One senior American organizational official who asked not to be named slammed the rabbinate as “behaving more like bishops than rabbis.”

“Don’t they understand how much damage they are doing in the Diaspora when they behave like they can do to Jews whatever they like?” he said to the Post on Tuesday. “This is un-Jewish and not smart.”

Comments

[Mr. Apikoros]

It's time Israel solves its unemployment problem.

Put the jobless Haredim, starting with these parasitical, talibanistic "rabbis," to work (at minimum wage) constructing jails and prisons where Haredim who violate the letter and spirit of the law can reside.

Israel's vehicles need new license plates.

[Hometown Postville]

Anything to generate a buck! Unfortunately, it's just the same old money spinning around in the wash cycle. No new money unless the scavengers get an actual job!

[Alter Kocker]

It is time that the government of Israel grow a set of balls and kick these leeches out of their self created positions of authority.

Inquiries on jewishness? This just gives them license to hold a couple for ransom.

In other words, we are looking for an excuse to take you to the cleaners and the government gives us a way to empty your pockets and your bank account. Once you have paid enough we will certify you as a jew and then you can get married...but wait, somewhere down the line, when you least expect it, our decision will be overruled and your marriage will be deemed invalid, your jewishness will be called into question and your children deemed momsers. Then we will require more money to re-energise your jewishness, certify your marriage and then convert your momsers back into jews.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

וְגֵר לֹא-תוֹנֶה, וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ
those 'rabbis' are amaleqites. i look for toras moshe in their edicts, and find no trace of it.
so much for 36 biblical injunctions on the treatments of converts.
here we have 'pretend rabbis' outright persecuting the entire body of converts, while preoccupied whith fish that swallowed a worm! boy, they got their priorities wrong.
ברוך שובר ומכניע זדים
from wikipedia
איסור הונאת הגר
איסור הונאת הגר הוא מצווה ביהדות האוסרת פגיעה בגר, בין מילולית ובין פיזית. במצווה זו נכלל איסור מיוחד על אונאת כספים, הטעית הגר וגביית תשלום מופרז ממנו או קנייה במחיר נמוך במיוחד כלפי גר, יותר מאשר כלפי יהודי.

בתורה נאמר: " וְגֵר לֹא-תוֹנֶה וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם" (שמות כב כ) וכן " וְכִי-יָגוּר אִתְּךָ גֵּר בְּאַרְצְכֶם לֹא תוֹנוּ אֹתוֹ. לד כְּאֶזְרָח מִכֶּם יִהְיֶה לָכֶם הַגֵּר הַגָּר אִתְּכֶם וְאָהַבְתָּ לוֹ כָּמוֹךָ כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶם" (ויקרא יט לג-לד) .. חז"ל פירשו את הפסוק: " לא תוננו - בדברים (בדיבור), ולא תלחצנו - בממון" (מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל משפטים - מס' דנזיקין פרשה יח ד"ה וגר לא). רבי אליעזר הגדול מציין שהתורה מזהירה לגבי היחס לגר בשלושים ושישה מקומות[1]. התורה מצוה פעם בלשון יחיד ופעם בלשון רבים ומכאן ניתן ללמוד על הכוונת הציווי הן לפרט והן למוסדות ציבור[2]. בשולחן ערוך נאמר: "צריך ליזהר ביותר באונאת הגר, בין בגופו בין בממונו, לפי שהוזהר עליו בכמה מקומות" (חושן משפט סימן רכח סעיף ב).

[עריכה] מדיני המצווה
פרטי דיני אונאת דברים ואונאת ממון מובאים במקומם. דוגמה המתייחסת במיוחד לגר מובא על ידי חז"ל: " ואם היה בן גרים לא יאמר לו: 'זכור מה היו מעשה אבותיך!'" ( ספרא בהר פרשה ג ד"ה פרק ד). לא ברור אם הציווי מתייחס גם לצאצאי גרים, אם כי הנטיה היא לומר שהיא שייכת גם עשר דורות לאחר הגיור או עד שהאדם המדובר לא יהיה ידוע כצאצא של גר[3]. לפי הרמב"ם וספר החינוך המצווה חלה על "גר צדק" שקיבל על עצמו אכל המצוות ולא על גר תושב המחויב רק על שבע מצוות של בני נח וקבלת מרות השלטון היהודי בישראל, אם כי אבן עזרא מפרש אחרת[4].

[עריכה] מטעמי המצווה
לגר צדק יש שתי נקודות תורפה המצריכים הגנה נוספת משאר בני ישראל:

עברו כגוי העלול להוות סטיגמה.
העדר קרובים וידידים היכולים לבוא להגנתו.
נקודות תורפה אלו עלולות "להזמין" עלבונות מאנשים הנהנים להיטפל לחלשים מהם, והמצוה באה להזהירם מפני התנהגות זו. נימוק נוסף הוא כי עלבונות עלולים לגרום לגר לחזור לדתו הקודמת[1]. רש"ר הירש מסביר את הקשר בין המצווה לגרות בני ישראל במצרים המוזכרת בסמיכות בתורה כנימוק לאהבת הגר. לדבריו, הצרה של בני ישראל בעבדות במצרים נבעה מכך שהמצרים כיבדו והעניקו זכויות לתושבים לפי ייחוסם ומולדתם ולא לפי אישיותם וזהו הבסיס ל"תועבת מצרים"[5].

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

AK-
It's not so much the need for the government to "grow a set of balls," as you put it, but for the Israeli populace. They need to rise up, vote out the party hacks who prostitute themselves to the religious parties for power, money, and re-election, and get the haredim working, into the army, and into the 21st century.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

It would be funny if those cops with rabbinate ordinations suddenly found themselves paying back some of their extra pay to get married.

[WolfishMusings]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't just affect converts. It affects just about every ba'al teshuva in the world -- as their parents were likely not married by an "authorized" rabbi. Am I reading this wrong?

The Wolf

[Isa]

WolfishMusings

This affects everybody whose parents were not married by Israeli rabbis AND all those whose parents were not married by 'recognized' Orthodox rabbis abroad.

(how do we know that your mother, mother's mother [etc] were Jewish?)

THEN

There is the " Any divorce in your family line on either side???"

[Alter Kocker]

Wolfishmusings:
This has put an inordinate amount of power into the hands of the "radical-right" of judaism. These low-lifes can literally hold most jews for ransom if they wish to get married in the state of Israel. Since they cannot attest to the jewishness of someone, or their ancestors, they can pretty well deny or demand payment from just about anyone outside of or without ties to their community. If you or your parents or grandparents are conservative-masorti, or reform, and you bring a marriage certificate from any of these institutions to these rabbis, they may at their discretion refer you to the inquiry. Essentially, there is no observance in Israel that is "Official" outside of Ultra-Orthodox/Chareidi observance, and no "Kosher" marriage now and in the past unless it was conducted under the auspices of a "recognised" rabbi / synagogue. That is the power that has been granted to these charlatans.

[AnotherBT]

Also-- there's the question of what they accept as proof. I've documented my maternal line back to 1897 where they paid taxes that were only levied on Jews in Russia and have rabbis listed on all the marriage certificates in the States, but who knows if that's sufficient. My mother was married by a reform rabbi (as was her mother) and none of my maternal relatives are buried in orthodox cemeteries. But even if that data is sufficient, it took years (and a fair amount of money) to accumulate that information.

This kind of ruling makes me nervous.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

It is time that the government of Israel grow a set of balls and kick these leeches out of their self created positions of authority.

And for Diaspora Jews to stop looking to Israel for affirmation of anything. Hello, RCA.

[who knows]

BTs are certaily not safe under this ruling. In fact, nobody is safe. A rabbi could decide to check and doubt any document you present to them. Great majority of Jews whether religious or not will be in constant state of fear of the rabbinical beaurocrat that could suddenly and at will damage their and their children's lives.

This is unacceptable. Israel wants to be percieved as modern and democratic state, and for the most part it is. However, rabbinate's impositions show that Israel has a long way to go. It also shows that there exist a potential to slide towards Talibanism. I should be prevented at all costs.

[rabbidw]

What part of the Shulchan Aruch is this found in? Where does the SA require a rabbi to perform kiddushin, (marriage) at all? The time has come to get Rabbis out of the marriage business. As private citizens, they do not have to accept any marriage. As employees of the State, they do. Get them out of the business, Allow civil marriages. End the problem one and for all. American Orthodoxy has not come to an end because America allows nonorthodox and civil weddings.

[A. Nuran]

Good point rabbidw,

1)Rabbis as we know them are an invention of the post-Temple era

2)Jews got married before there were rabbis

3)You don't need a rabbi for the essentials of a contract, a gift, witnesses and consummation.

4)In Ancient Judaism marriage was as much an economic contract as anything else. Look at the old details about property, dowries, inheritance, the monetary value of a hymen and so on.

So why do we have to have what amounts to a lawyer preside over it?

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, head of the office of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, told the Post ????

rabbi? what rabbi? I thought we are talking of Torquemada Peretz, Haman Amar & Puppet Metzger !

[justayid]

this will stir up some fuss when all the non-O western olim have to prove their jewishness, despite being married by C or R rabbis, and being in fact (for most of them) 100% jewish on all sides going back to when their great grand parents left the shtetl.

Side note - its not perfect anyway. My wife and I were married by a modern O rabbi in the USA - presumably his group IS recognized. he knew I was raised Reform, was living Conservative, and he made NO effort to verify my statement that all my grandparents were Jewish. He did not ask, IIRC, who married my parents, etc, etc.
But now I guess its too late for the rabbinate to question my kids jewishness, if they marry in Israel. We had better go dig up that marriage cert though.

[Bilaam's Ass]

More Evil and Darkness...