Minister of Religious Affairs Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) and his deputy, Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, held a joint press conference during which they announced their reform that will establish regional marriage registration in Israel. Bennett began by addressing the upcoming elections for the nation’s chief rabbis, explaining “it is trivial for me. The chief rabbis must be Zionists”, in line with his campaign promises.
Bennett then went on to describe the major reform, in which couple wishing to register for marriage with the Chief Rabbinate will be able to take advantage of a new regional registration system. The new system will permit a marriage applicant to register in a religious council office of his/her choosing, no longer compelled to do so in the religious council in the city of one’s residence.
Bennett proudly announced that “While there is no competition in religion, and Jewishness belongs to all of us,” there will be competition in the realm of religious services, and religious councils that provide a friendly face and make an effort to accommodate will receive more registrants. The reform program contains three components, being dubbed “Select your rabbi.”
Tzohar Rabbonim founder Rabbi David Stav, a candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi has spoke of the need for this reform during past years. He questioned why a student in Tel Aviv University who lives in Yerushalayim is compelled to register in the capital when s/he spends most of his/her time in Tel Aviv. That is at the heart of Bennett’s reform.
Defenders of the current system explain that often, when one is compelled to register in one’s city of residence, the religious council can contact a local rav who is familiar with an applicant and thereby facilitate if s/he is truly single and eligible for marriage. They feel regionalization will eliminate this as well as adding additional hurdles to the verification process. Bennett however feels in the age of computers and advanced technology there is no reason not to permit regional registration. He also believes that for as long as local religious councils are assured marriage registrations and the funds they generate, there is no incentive to improve the service offered.
Bennett explained that currently, there are 133 religious councils nationwide and he plans to reduce that number to 80 in the third stage of the program, thereby cutting costs and improving service and efficiency. Bennett explained he is tired of the day when a chosson or Kallah arrives for marriage registration and are at times strong-armed into supporting a certain party, calling such actions “A Chilul Hashem. We are bringing religious services to the tzibur, and this is a Kiddush Hashem.”
Deputy Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan added that there will now be healthy competition from the local religious councils, all desiring to earn the 600 NIS fee for processing a wedding couple. He is confident the need to generate income will compel local authorities to step up to the plate.
Seeking to make the new system as user friendly as possible, one will be able to download forms from the internet and complete them at home, expediting the process in the local council office. This is the second stage of the plan. Ben-Dahan remains determined to improve the religious councils by bringing them to a level of professionalism not seen today.
The announced reform is in line with the battle that has been conducted by Tzohar Rabbonim for years and leaders of the organization praised the ministry on Sunday, 10 Sivan 5773, shortly after the reform was announced.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Shehecheyanu!
Sounds very good. Competition always always always reduces prices and improves services. In this case where the price is fixed, services will most definitely improve.
Sounds like an excellent plan.
“the religious council can contact a local rav who is familiar with an applicant and thereby facilitate if s/he is truly single and eligible for marriage”. —- We are living in an age of technology, phone services, faxes, emails etc. A religious council of Kiryat Gat can contact the Rav of Haifa to ensure that the marriage partners are single, jewish, etc. and why shouldn’t a couple get married by Rabbonim that they are comfortable with….that is the minhag throughout the world!!!
1. Will Bennett support recognition of non-zionist but halachically correct marriages, divorces, and conversions? At present they generally recognize marriages and divorces among hareidim, but not conversions.
2. The attempts by the religious zionists and some hareidim to force all Israelis to observe halacha in personal relations failed long ago, and was doomed from the start since Israel never criminalized de facto relationships (which are lawful under halacha, but that’s another issue) and never criminalized adultery. Unfortunately, non-religious persons (or all religions) since the mid-20th century have tended to engage in relations regardless of whether or not they are married to the other person, or to someone else. This leads to a situation that most Jewish secular persons, after several generations, are routinely producing children who are safek mamzerim (and unfortunately, this can easily be checked by DNA testing – though I suspect many hareidim rabbanim will on principle not accept such tests when conducted to prove mamzerus). This suggests the wisdom of many (especially American) hareidi rabbanim of not recognizing any marriages involving people who aren’t Shomer Mitsvos, on the theory that they never intended to be married K’Dat Moshe v’Yisrael.
3. Given the current situation in other areas, such as Bennett’s support of the plan to conscript or arrest all yeshiva students, close done non-zionist yeshivos, mandating gender mixing in private activities, prohibiting Jewish parents from giving their children a Torah intensive education, etc.– all this will do is result it most Hareidim regarding Zionists as safek goyim, safek mamzerim, and further accelerate the process of create a split similar to that which exists between us and the Samaritans (who we hold to be goyim) and the Karites (who we hold to be mamzerim).
4. A better solution, at this point in time (i.e. several years since the invention of effective contraception precipitated a “revolution” we don’t like to talk about in public), it might be better for the government to stop encouraging non-religious people to engage in ceremonies that are meaningless to them and will result in their children being mamzerim (when produced by adultery, which is very common among them) – and treats domestic relations as a matter for private agreements between the parties rather than state action.
Finally, these guys have done something good!
we r rapidly approaching the level of kulunu chyovim. what reshaim heaven protect us from the divine retribution which cv must follow such an outrage
” religious affairs” doesn’t he mean irreligious affairs?
to akuperman
You make an argument that it is better to not have a rabbanut in charge of marriage and divorce. You are so wrong.
First of all, the famous psak of Reb Moshe Feinstein ztz”l that offspring of remarried women who didn’t receive a GET are non-mamzerim based on the assumtion that their first marriage was not halachically valid is a bdi eved psak. reb moshe was faced with a terrifying situation of total hefkerus amongst the non frum yidden and in his great ahavas yisrael found a way out for their offspring. He never suggested that l’chatchila jewish people should not have an halachically valid marriage. You are suggesting just that. And on what Gadol do you base your suggestion?
Secondly, you suggest that most jewish children of secular families in israel are safek mamzerim. I can’t believe that yeshiva world news actually approved such a statement. It goes against their policy of not allowing inflammatory statements that contain motzei sheim rah. And you have just been motzei shaim rah millions of yidden! Shame on you kuperman and shame on YWN! And you are so wrong! Even a married woman who has relations with another man and then has a child – the child is not even a mamzer – as the chazakah goes according to rov, and rov is with her husband.
The secular community in israel gets married properly and gets divorced properly, according to halacha, and that is one of the great achievments of the rabbanut.
It seems to me that the function of a rabbi in marriage today is to ask the right questions and discuss the important issues that will help the young couple get off to a good start in their new life together.