The Israeli Chief Rabbinate on Friday denied in a statement having made a final, unprecedented decision to allow civil marriages for non-Jews.
The ruling, which according to Voice of Israel government radio was made Thursday night, would not affect situations in which one member of the couple is Jewish, and the other is not.
The Rabbinical Council has full authority over the institution of marriage in the State of Israel as it pertains to Jewish citizens. Muslim and Christian marriages are overseen by their respective religious authorities. Non-religious marriage ceremonies are legal, but couples choosing a non-religious ceremony are not registered as married until going through a recognized religious authority as well.
Israelis who have chosen to seal their bond solely with civil ties have until now been forced to do so outside of the country. The foreign marriage certificates are recognized by the Interior Ministry, allowing the couple to register as married without a religious wedding.
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told the annual conference of the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) this week that regardless of any decision that would be made on the matter, mixed marriages would not be approved.
“They (referring to the Yisrael Beiteinu / Israel is Our Home party –ed.) want a Jew and a non-Jew to be allowed to marry, and this will certainly not be permitted by anyone,” he assured the Paris gathering.
“It’s inconceivable to have mixed marriages approved by a rabbi in Israel. We will do everything in order to keep the spirit of Israel holy. If G-d forbid we would do something against the Halacha or without the consent of the great sages of Israel, we will be dividing the nation,” Rabbi Metzger said.
Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, currently the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, also slammed the party’s stance in his opening statement to the rabbinical convention. Mixed marriages, he told the gathering, are a “terrible catastrophe that is plaguing the people of Israel in the world today.”
Rabbi Lau warned that “there are those who are trying to open the gates for this phenomenon in Israel as well. We don’t need this import,” and recommended that people who want a civil marriage should continue to obtain one outside the country.
“You want to introduce pluralism, liberalism, reforms? There are enough countries who claim to exercise this,” he pointed out. “There are 192 democratic states – but only one Jewish state."
Yisrael Beiteinu has demanded that the state’s rabbis allow civil marriages for anyone who does not want a religious ceremony, an issue that has been a plank of party’s platform since its inception.
The Rabbinate said in its statement that rabbis would meet early next week with representatives of the religious parties in Israel, including United Torah Judaism, the Sephardic religious Shas party and others. At that time, depending on whether the parties agree to accept the Rabbinate's position on the matter, the rabbis will request a meeting with Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avigdor Lieberman to form a compromise.