That does not stop it from happening, but it does give the Rabbanut overwhelming control of the system. I have a couple of rabbi friends who believe the Rabbanut monopoly on weddings should be ended and they perform such weddings, knowing the risk they are taking. In addition, many other people do such things as well, and Yesh Atid MKs, among others, have been doing this over the past couple of years as well.
MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) proposed a law that would allow private weddings without registering via the Rabbanut. Because of the recent increase in such activity by Yair Lapid and other Yesh Atid MKs, this proposal was dubbed "the Yair Lapid Law".
The law was voted down, though some in the coalition were conflicted about it as they wanted to support it but were unable to due to the coalition position.
source: Srugim
Has anybody ever been arrested for such a crime? If it is so public, MKs are referenced as performing such weddings and they are generally high profile, who do they regularly get away with it? I could understand low-profile people getting away with it, because how would anyone outside the family members even know a crime was being committed, but the high-profile ones are far more public.
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Non-Jews have to get married through their own officially recognized religious group. Yes, the State of Israel officially approves Muslim Kadis and all the rest just like they do rabbanim. In addition to Jews and Muslims, Bahais and Druze are officially recognized, as are ten sects of Christianity, most of which you never heard of. If you're a Shiite Muslim you have to make do; same if you're a Christian who's not one of those groups. (For example, Anglicans are the only recognized Protestant group. So if you're, say, Baptist, an Anglican priest will stand there to officially certify it while your pastor marries you, same as American Jews who bring in their own rabbi from the US to marry them and have an Israeli standing under the chuppah as well.)
ReplyDeleteIf you're none of those religions, or a Russian oleh who's not halakhically Jewish, or intermarrying (unless you're marrying into a religion that recognizes intermarriages), you're out of luck. I think the only exception is made when two non-Jewish Russian olim marry each other- they get a sort of civil partnership status.
By the way, the origin of this law is from the 'ottoman turkish' law, which was carried over by the mandatory british, and laterd the state.
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