The Knesset voted Monday night in favor of a bill sponsored by the Jewish Home party that in effect breaks the grip of Haredi rabbis on marriage permits in the country. It easily passed on second and third readings in the Knesset with the only opposition coming from Haredi Knesset Members.
The “Tzohar Law,” named after the organization of modern orthodox rabbis who have been vying for more influence in the country’s religious establishment, will allow couples to register for marriages anywhere they want. The change is not minor. Certain cities are known to be a nightmare for couples who are often faced with local rabbis’ extreme demands concerning their being Jewish, their lifestyles, and also touching on customs that vary in different communities, such Sephardi and Ashkenazi, and which are not required to be observed by everyone.
One rabbi who has performed dozens if not hundreds of marriages told The Jewish Press that one city, which is not being named here in order not to blemish its name, is a known problem because of local Haredi rabbis’ conditions that often are “unreasonable.” Now that a prospective bride and groom can register wherever they want, Haredi rabbis will lose any influence, good or bad, they once had over secular and non-Haredi religious couples. If the Haredi establishment had been a bit more flexible in the past decade, it could have won the respect of tens of thousands of Jews who might have been swayed to become more observant. Instead, their insensitivity to Israeli’s desire for tradition without coercion has cost them their dominance and has allowed modern orthodox rabbis to take over as much more widely accepted role models.
The winners of the new law are the Tzohar rabbis and the Jewish Home Party, which is rapidly shaking off its predecessor’s National Religious Party stigma of representing only observant Jews and those that believe that Jewish development in Judea and Samaria is the only important issue for the country.
The party has attracted non-observant supporters with an election platform that supported civil marriages, and the Tzohar law is bound to attract more non-religious supporters who want to marry according to Jewish law without having to be subservient to Haredi rabbis’ ultimatums. “We have opened the religious services market, “ said Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett.
The Tzohar rabbis recently lost an important battle with the Haredi establishment, which elected Rabbi David Lau as Chief Ashkenazi rabbi instead of Tzohar Rabbi David Stav. The new law will also create a computerized database for the registrations, making the records accessible to all of the registrars.
This is good news. As a Reform Jew it has always irked me that Israel did not appear to be a welcoming place for secular Jews who still value their Jewishness and are supportive of Israel. However, I was to learn something about Israeli Jews who consider themselves to be Orthodox. Upon a visit to Netanya a number of years ago, I was invited to a family home for a Shabbat dinner by a family who considered themselves Orthodox. During that dinner they did not first (or ever) say the blessings over the wine or the bread, did not wear kippas, and so what at least some Jews in Israel consider Orthodox seemed to me much closer to being secular, yet the control by the Orthodox persisted. It is good to see the changes to modernism.
I agree. This is good news. It may also attract more young people from the diaspora.
For anyone Jewish getting married in Israel this is certainly a step in the right direction.