Israel Slower To Welcome Converts. New Jews Find Legal Roadblocks on Road to Citizenship courtesy of seth farber Wedding Woes: Rabbi Seth Farber (right) presides over the wedding of a man who is a convert to Judaism. Some rabbis will not marry converts, who are also facing roadblocks on the path to Israeli citizenship. By Nathan Jeffay Published April 25, 2012, issue of May 04, 2012.
Tel Aviv — For 64 years, Israel has been encouraging Jews, whoever and wherever they are, to immigrate as soon as possible. Over the past four months, 15 people who have converted in the Diaspora, through Diaspora rabbinates that Israel deems legitimate, have found themselves denied citizenship under the Law of Return for one simple reason: They were too keen to immigrate or, as Israelis say, using a Hebrew term, make aliyah.
Israel’s Interior Ministry has long asserted that it has the power to withhold immigration rights from converts unless they have been residents of their Diaspora community for a period of time after they convert. Civil Marriage | New Family Organization. Getting Married in Israel: Why It So Often Means Hiring a Detective - Daniel Estrin. An employee works with documents at the Russian State Archives. (Reuters) One drizzly fall night two years ago, the Israeli detective Shimon Har-Shalom stepped off a plane in Moscow clutching a briefcase full of clues. After hurrying through a crowd of fur coats, he ducked into the last car of the downtown express train and removed his cap, revealing a black yarmulke and short, wispy silvery side locks of hair.
He slid a file folder from his briefcase and shuffled its contents: a century-old marriage contract, certificates stamped with the hammer-and-sickle of the Soviet Union, and hazy family photographs. The case Har-Shalom was working that night had bedeviled him for some time. Across thousands of years of Jewish history, seldom did a person need to prove to be a member of the tribe.
Marriage in Israel is controlled by state religious authorities; there are virtually no civil weddings in the country. But many rabbis questioned the newcomers' lineage. Information and Resources on Marriage in Israel | Jewish Federations of North America. How does it work today? Israel inherited its system of registering marriage from the Ottoman Empire via the British. Under this system only religious authorities — the Orthodox-controlled Chief Rabbinate, mosques and churches — have the power to officiate marriages. What are some implications of the current legal situation? Israeli weddings performed privately (i.e. not performed by a member of the local Rabbinate) are not recognized by the state. This includes: · Reform, Conservative and Secular ceremonies, · Marriage of gay couples, · Marriage of a Cohen and a divorcee, · Marriage of a Cohen and a convert · Marriage between a Jew and "a person of no religion"/ or of "questionable Halachic background" (not recognized as Jewish by the rabbinate, including over 300,000 Israeli citizens from former Soviet Union) What about marriages performed outside Israel?
Today, Cyprus is the most popular destination for Israelis seeking to get married abroad due to its close proximity. Some numbers: We must: Civil Marriage. CIVIL MARRIAGE, a marriage ceremony between Jews, celebrated in accordance with the secular, and not the Jewish law. The Problem in Jewish Law Since in Jewish law a woman is not considered a wife (eshet ish) unless she has been married "properly," i.e., in one of the ways recognized by Jewish law (Yad, Ishut 1:3; Tur, EH 26; Sh. Ar., EH 26:1), any marriage celebrated according to the secular law and not intended to be in accordance with the "Law of Moses and Israel" should prima facie not be a "proper" one in the above-mentioned sense.
The authorities nevertheless discuss the question whether, according to Jewish law, the consequences of marriage may apply to a civil marriage. Difference of Opinions of the Posekim The Halakhah in Practice Where a get mi-humra is granted, there is a difference of opinion among rabbinic authorities as to whether or not the divorced woman may remarry a kohen, who is generally proscribed from marrying a divorcee. A.Ch.