It's Not Just Christians that Get Wacky About Marriage

israel, marriage, muslim, druze, christian,
I've written a lot about Christians in the US that feel a need to butt into other peoples' marriages.* Today, I discovered that Christians haven't cornered the market on marriage wackiness. The Israelis have, in fact, taken marriage wackiness** to a place US Christians never even dreamed of.

You see, even though 70% of Israel's Jews identify as secular, marriage between Jews is entirely in the hands of the ultraorthodox Rabinnate, who can, and do, decide who can marry and who cannot. If the Rabinnate decides that you aren't quite Jewish enough for them, or that you're marrying someone who isn't Jewish enough, you can't get married inside your own country. You have to travel to some other country to get married, which is what happens in 1 in 5 marriages in Israel. (Your marriage will be recognized once you reenter Israel.)

Israel has passed control of all matters relating to personal status – births, marriages and divorces, and deaths – to rabbis belonging to the strictest stream of Judaism, Orthodoxy.

...

Official figures show that as many as 350,000 Jews are classified by the rabbinate as having “no religion”, and are therefore unable to marry in Israel. Their only option is to wed abroad – the marriage is then recognised on their return.

...

Mr Kornfeld said the rabbis’ grip on marriage has continued even though nearly 70 per cent of Israeli Jews defined themselves as secular. Even among the religious, some regard themselves as belonging to the more moderate Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism.

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Israel’s Muslim, Christian and Druze citizens – comprising nearly a fifth of the population – have their own separate religious authorities who are given exclusive oversight of weddings.

There's no mention of what happens to atheists, agnostics and the other "others" that must live in Israel (we're everywhere), but I'm guessing the nonreligious in Israel don't generally make a lot of noise about it. There are no provisions at all for interfaith marriages.

I'm trying to imagine this, and I really can't. I think that any religious involvement in government recognized legal statuses is inappropriate at best and should be abolished. Marriage in the US should follow the model of some European countries: all officially recognized marriages are secular, performed by a Justice of the Peace. The religious can then go have a second, religious ceremony, but that ceremony has no legal meaning. This entirely separates church and state, which is a good thing.

Israel has gone entirely in the opposite direction, ceding control of a legal ceremony to religious groups, to the point where those not pleasing to said religious group must leave the country to obtain the legal advantages of marriage. What happens to those unable to afford a trip to Europe to get married? Well, you need only look at the experiences of gay couples in the US to see that. It's not pretty.

I thought the US had ceded a little too much democracy to the Christian majority, but the supposed democracy of Israel has us beat by a mile. It's not good for anyone.



*You can search by gay marriage if you haven't read my thoughts on the subject, but for the lazy, shorter me: none of your business who gets married or how they run their marriage.

**Attending the World is a proPalestinian blog, but I did find numerous confirmations of their description of Israel's marriage laws from neutral parties.