NEW YORK – Following yesterday’s vote by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for legislation upholding a law that prohibits private wedding ceremonies including a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment for both the rabbi and couple, The Rabbinical Assembly’s executive vice president Rabbi Julie Schonfeld and its president Rabbi William Gershon issued the following statement:
This law is an affront to all Jews around the world, both in Israel and in the Diaspora. This marriage law goes against some of the fundamental principles that sustained our people through centuries of exile and oppression, that the Jewish people are one people with a shared history who recognize the many diverse practices of Jews around the world. This vote also comes at a probative hour, as the Knesset considers the Nation-State bill, widely condemned as undemocratic.
Yesterday’s decision by the Ministerial Committee allows for improper influence over Israeli citizens’ most personal and individual choices clearly demonstrating how Israel’s lack of Jewish religious freedom serves as a building block for further anti-democratic legislation. Israel must take care not to become the only country in the world where Jews reside that denies religious freedom to all its Jewish people.
Updated December 3, 2014