Couple Stages Protest Wedding Against Rabbinute

A young couple conducted a very public nuptial ceremony in front of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, designed in part to demonstrate against the current situation in Israel, where the only way for Jews to wed by law is through the Chief Rabbinate.

An alternative Tu Be'av wedding
Couples takes aim at ‘Rabbinate’s grip.'
By JONAH MANDEL • JERUSALEM POST

Weddings tend to be a public or official demonstration of commitment to a bond, generally based on love, between two people.

Early Sunday evening, as the minor Jewish holiday of love, Tu Be’av, set in, a young couple conducted a very public nuptial ceremony in front of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, designed in part to demonstrate against the current situation in Israel, where the only way for Jews to wed by law is through the Chief Rabbinate.

On Tu Be’av in Second Temple times, single Jewish girls in white dresses would sing and dance in the vineyards surrounding Jerusalem, to be observed and subsequently selected for marriage by eligible Jewish men. The tradition didn’t survive, but the day is still celebrated as the Jewish equivalent of Valentine’s Day and is one of the most sought-after dates for weddings in Israel.

So for Stas Granin and Yulia Tagil, Tu Be’av was the perfect day to tie the knot and an opportunity to raise their voices in protest against the Rabbinate. Their wedding, which was the centerpiece of the day’s “Free Love” event, was conducted in a pluralistic Jewish ceremony by Dr. Motti Zaira.

“We are Jewish enough to serve in the army, pay taxes and fulfill our civil obligations, but we are not Jewish enough to get married here,” said Granin, who made aliya from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. Granin, 28, and Tagil, 29, are two of an estimated 350,000 Israelis who were recognized by the state as eligible for aliya under the Law of Return but are not considered halachically Jewish or have had their Jewishness called into question by the Chief Rabbinate.

Attempts to provide a legal status to civil marriages between Jews in Israel have been unsuccessful. Israel Beiteinu’s MK David Rotem recently passed a law allowing civil unions between non- Jews, but the problem remains for the tens of thousands of young people who are either not halachically Jewish, although though they perceive themselves as such, or would have to undergo what they see as an unnecessary probe by the Rabbinate into their background to prove they’re Jewish.

Non-Orthodox Jewish ceremonies in Israel are not recognized by the law, and growing numbers of Israelis, including those who are clearly Jewish according to Halacha, are choosing to either marry outside of Israel and have their marriage certificate validated upon their return, or simply live as common-law couples.

But Granin and Tagil, who bear in their minds the 70 years of anti-religious oppression in the Soviet Union, wanted to marry as Jews in Israel, even if Sunday evening’s ceremony would not be recognized by the state. They stressed that they were opposed not to the existence of the Rabbinate, but to the inability of people to choose the way they marry.

This is the second public Tu Be’av protest wedding. It was accompanied by street theater, live music, films, dancing and information booths promoting freedom of choice in marriage. It was funded primarily by the New Israel Fund and organized by Havaya, an organization that promotes alternative Jewish life-cycle ceremonies, and Fishka, a community of young Russian- speakers in Israel promoting social change.

“It is a great mitzva not to marry through the Rabbinate,” said Eran Baruch, head of Bina: Center for Jewish Identity and Hebrew Culture, which also supported the event. “The religious establishment’s control over our lives is distancing many populations, particularly that of immigrants.”

Comments

[Menachem Mendel lll]

Mazel Tov and shkoyah!

[David]

Mazel Tov!

[harold]

“We are Jewish enough to serve in the army, pay taxes and fulfill our civil obligations

I don't understand. Does one HAVE to be Jewish to serve in the Army? What about taxes, only Jews pay taxes? Funny statement.

That being said. I can understand the need to set standards as to who is a Jew for the purpose of the Law or Return or to have a marriage be declared as a Jewish marriage certified by the Israeli govt, but I see no reason why if someone does not need that certification then one should be able to have a civil marriage.

[alternative childcare]

Harold, that statement would have you put in cherem by all the rabbinic authorities. If you want to be the charedi troll, you have to at least know what the religious position is, and the religious position has been in opposition to civil proceedings in any form (cf the reaction to Yeshaya Leibovitch's call for this many years ago). So welcome now to the world of the reformers and the slippery slope to "conservative" and "reform".
You are now officially a member of "Team Shmarya".

[Neo-Conservaguy]

While I'm glad to see Israelis protesting the Chief Rabbinate, the rather more Russian Punk Biker than traditional Jewish nature of this ceremony can only be appreciated with pictures:

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/YOVBF_5Jcnx/Jewish+Couple+Marry+During+Alternative+Ceremony/8EJ8vVJRdjm/Yulia+Tagil

In any case, may they have long happy lives and a good marriage.

[A E ANDERSON]

I think a good protest would be to מקדש בביאה in a mass, Rev. Moon-like ceremony right outside the Rabbanut's היכלֹ שלמה just to drive the point home. No questions about witnesses, either, hehe.

[Dr. Dave]

Happy Tu B'Av everyone.

Ladies borrow some white dresses and dance in the street.

Gents, don't look for beauty or yichus, but look for women who are upright and righteous.

[Шнеерсон]

So again Harry's chabad shiksa daughter will have goy kids who can't be called to aliyah etc.

Sorry Harry but if your mother is a shiksa you're not Jewish.

As the signs say in the fine shuls of Deal NJ:

NO CONVERTS
NO CHABAD

[Friar Yid]

Well done. Hopefully the start of more to come. If every Jewish couple that goes to Cyprus (or begrudgingly gets an "official" rubber-stamped state-approved) wedding also had a public protest wedding in Israel, it would be a nice wake-up call to the politicians.

Have the next ones be in front of the PM's residence-- or the Knesset.

[harold]

Harold, that statement would have you put in cherem by all the rabbinic authorities. If you want to be the charedi troll, you have to at least know what the religious position is

I don't tow any particular religious line. I call it as I see it. I, like many people, have my own personal religious standards. What appears to put me in many FailedMessianites eyes as a haredi is the fact that I don't hate them outright. I can’t help it, but I see too many of them that are decent people so I cannot, despite the handful of Mr. Rosenberg’s daily posts, jump on the bandwagon and begin to hate them as a group.

[Norm]

Is the couple registered for gifts-I'd like to send them a present

[A. Nuran]

Norm, send them something anyway. Maybe sheets with Loving Day embroidery.

[rabbidw]

Since when do Jews need Rabbis to officiate at an halachic wedding? Since never.
To officiate at an official marriage in NY the officiant must be a member of the clergy, but if people were already married civilly the Jewish wedding does not require a rabbi. Or if because of Social Security or other reasons, the couple do not want the marriage to be civilly recorded, an halachic marriage needs an item of value to pass from the husband to the wife, it needs two kosher witnesses, it needes a Ketubah, and it needs the consent of both parties. It does not need a Rabbi.

[avraham]

In Israel the law is to have a rabbi.
But as rabbidw said all you really need is two witnesses and the other stuff which is derabanan.

[Шнеерсон]

For the purposes of this blog harry is functionally a gentile so he/she/it is only a foil the way a fundamentalist catholic or mormon could be.
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