“This is a person’s life, we’re talking about very serious matters,” Ben-Or said after first describing the situation many people have found themselves in through no fault of their own: waiting for extended periods of time for the Chief Rabbinate to decide if they are Jewish enough to marry in Israel without the Chief Rabbinate even answering questions regarding the inordinate delays.“It is a right to start a family. I am ashamed that in a functioning state this information cannot be provided. It is an unprecedented scandal. It is not Jewish, and [is] inhumane.”
Chief Rabbinate’s Behavior “Inhumane,” Judge Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
An Israeli court has ordered the haredi-controlled official state Chief Rabbinate of Israel to release its secret list of Diaspora rabbis it uses to verify issues of Jewish identity for Diaspora Jews who have relocated to Israel or wish to marry there, the Times of Israel reported.
Wednesday Judge Nava Ben-Or ordered the Chief Rabbinate to produce the list within 45 days saying that she is “shocked” by what appears to be the Chief Rabbinate’s lack of transparency in an issue that is critical for so many people.
“This is a person’s life, we’re talking about very serious matters,” Ben-Or said after first describing the situation many people have found themselves in through no fault of their own: waiting for extended periods of time for the Chief Rabbinate to decide if they are Jewish enough to marry in Israel without the Chief Rabbinate even answering questions regarding the inordinate delays.“It is a right to start a family. I am ashamed that in a functioning state this information cannot be provided. It is an unprecedented scandal. It is not Jewish, and [is] inhumane,” Ben-Or said.
The lawsuit demanding the Chief Rabbinate release the information on the rabbis was filed in October by ITIM, an NGO headed by Modern Orthodox Rabbi Seth Farber. ITIM helps immigrants and Israeli citizens navigate the byzantine official state religious bureaucracy, which is haredi-controlled.
“I am pleased that the court recognized both the ineptitude of the present administration as well as the significance of the issue at hand. I hope that the rabbinate will take the judge’s words to heart and begin to act in a transparent way in order to make Jewish life more normal in this country,” Farber told The Times of Israel.
Farber said ITIM has requested the rabbis list from the Chief Rabbinate six times over the past two years, but the Chief Rabbinate has refused to produce it.
There is no civil marriage in Israel. In the cases where a Jew wants to marry a non-Jew, one of them must formally convert to the other’s religion and then can be married by authorized clergey from that religion.
In 2013, the right-wing-leaning Knesset passed a law that would jail for two years couples who marry in Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremonies that are not sanctioned by the Chief Rabbinate. The rabbis officiating at those unauthorized weddings would also be jailed for two years.