Cabinet Secretary Oveid Yechezkel is pleased with the change that is scheduled to take place this week, permitting citizens registering with the Rabbinate before their wedding to do so in the city of their choice, no longer compelled to register in the city where they show legal residence.

While Yechezkel is optimistic and expects the new directive to go into effect this week, officials in the Chief Rabbinate and Minister of Religious Services (Shas) Yitzchak Cohen are apprehensive, fearing the move will ultimately lead to an increase in assimilation since some people whose Yiddishkeit is questionable in their home city will opt to go elsewhere in the hope of perpetrating a fraud. The new administrative directive they feel will also complicate the matter of the “Certificate of Availability” that each person must present to the Rabbinate in his/her city, attesting to the fact that he/she is free to wed.

While Yechezkel is pleased with the regulation, which he feels will make the pre-marriage registration more pleasant, the Rabbinate indicates it has no plans to abide by the decision just yet, insisting Gedolei HaDor must weigh the issues and render a decision before they can make such a change.

Yechezkel stated that with all due respect to the rabbinical leaders, this is a decision pertaining to civil service protocol and the matter has been decided and it is not the place of the rabbis to decide otherwise. He explained “we are dealing with procedural changes intended to provide better service to citizens and the decision is only to be made by the state in such matters.”

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)