OP-ED: Civil marriage in Israel – the time has come

BY SUSIE GELMAN

(Washington Jewish Week) — With all of the many issues confronting the state of Israel – the Iranian nuclear threat, the challenges of renewing meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians, the increasing social divisions in Israeli society, an unconventional and somewhat precarious coalition government, serious deficits in the educational system, insufficient employment opportunities for Israelis with advanced degrees and an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable neighborhood – one might assume that the Jewish state has more than enough on its collective plate.

For the first time since 1977, there are no ultra-Orthodox parties in the recently-formed governing coalition. The ascendancy of two new parties, in particular Yesh Atid (There is a Future), reflects an increasing restiveness in Israeli society, amply demonstrated during the summer of 2011, when hundreds of thousands of Israelis literally took to the streets to protest the growing unaffordability of Israeli life and the unfairness of not requiring all Israelis to share in protecting the country.

But there is an additional critical issue facing Israel today – civil marriage. Israel shares the lack of a civil marriage option with the following countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Libya – as well as Mauritania, Indonesia and Iran. In Israel, only religious authorities, specifically, the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical courts, and the Islamic and Christian authorities have the power to officiate at marriages in their respective religious communities.

This arrangement, which dates back to the Ottoman Empire, was continued during the British Mandate (1918-1948). In June, 1947, David Ben Gurion, then chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency (the quasi-government of Israel before it became a state), offered a set of guarantees preserving the “status quo” regarding marriage and other matters of personal status to two religious parties, Agudath Israel and Mizrahi (later the National Religious Party), so that they would join the first elected government of Israel in 1949, thus entrusting to the Orthodox Rabbinate the authority to determine all such matters according to the laws of Halacha.

Susie Gelman is the immediate past president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and co-chair of the November, 2013 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Jerusalem. She is also part-owner of Washington Jewish Week. To read the rest of this opinion column, click here.