Attorney Batya Kahana-Dror, Executive Director of the ‘Movoi Satum’ (Deadlock) organization, is calling on Israelis not to get married via the Chief Rabbinate of Israel system. Her statement is prompted by the cabinet decision to remove authority for the Chief Rabbinate’s batei din around the country from the Justice Ministry, controlled by Bayit Yehudi, and placing it in the hands of the Religious Services Ministry, which is controlled by Shas.
“Transfer of control of batei din to the Religious Services Ministry and the expected canceling the giyur reforms by the cabinet are additional steps towards turning the State of Israel into a State of Halacha and gradually deepening the religious monopoly on Israeli citizens” Stated Kahana-Dror.
She explains the result is complete Shas “domination of the judicial system in the area of personal life of every Jewish citizen of Israel as it is known all matters of marriage and divorce of Jewish citizens of the country are under the sole authority of the rabbinical courts. Now, instead of being independent, instead of being an independent judicial body, it will be under the control of a political religious body, the Ministry of Religious Services which identifies with the chareidi Sephardi tzibur”.
She feels the move will result in “immediate difficult results” regarding pending divorce cases and agunos.
She adds “Israeli citizens must decide with their feet regarding the gradually increasing religious monopoly on their lives by not marrying in the Rabbinate and by not accepting the authority of the Rabbinate’s batei din which are political; under the Ministry of Religious Services”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Right. So what you want is a Jewish state without Judaism.
There is no halacha that one must marry involve a government rabbi in one’s wedding. The Israelis copied that law from the goyim. Indeed, the whole idea of a “rabbinut” is based on the idea of established churches imported from the British – in which the official church is a government agency whose primary goal is to serve the state.
The learned attorney is in fact declaring that if a particular law doesn’t suit someone, it’s OK to publicly call for people to ignore it. This is nothing less than a call to anarchy and civil disobedience. Something that ought to be illegal, but of course, when “protesting” religious laws it’s deemed acceptable!!