Source: Associated Press
By ILAN BEN ZION
JERUSALEM (AP) — Rabbi Chuck Davidson is a criminal in the eyes of Israeli law. However, he wouldn’t be put behind bars for his crime in most countries. His offense: conducting rogue weddings in defiance of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.
Even though Davidson belongs to the officially recognized Orthodox stream of Judaism, he is among a growing cohort of Jewish groups running afoul of the law by performing weddings without the rabbinate’s sanction. Critics like Davidson believe the rabbinate has grown too strict in its interpretation of religious law, making it unnecessarily difficult for Jewish couples to marry.
“More and more Israelis are getting married outside the rabbinate,” said Michal Berman, chief executive of Panim, an umbrella group representing Israeli Jewish pluralist organizations. Its affiliates perform Orthodox, liberal and secular weddings in defiance of the rabbinate.
Berman said that an estimated 20 percent of Israelis are getting married outside the rabbinate, compared to 16 percent in 2010. She expects that number to keep growing, which she considers a sign of a growing lack of faith in the religious body. “There are plural ways of being Jewish and it’s better to acknowledge it,” Berman said.
Categories: Israel, Jerusalem, Jewish Faith, Marriage, Middle East, The Muslim Times