Message #6484

[wbcoleman]

See, in Israel only religious marriage exists.  Christian and Muslim authorities control Christian and Muslim marriages.  The Chief Rabbinate controls Jewish marriage and, if you are Jewish but if your proposed marriage would violate some aspect of Jewish law, you cannot get married without leaving the country.

You seem to be hinting that there is a problem with this. It seems reasonable that the Jewish church wouldn't allow people who who violate Jewish law to be members of the church.  Maybe I'm missing something here but what's wrong with this?  You're going to have to spell-it-out plainly for me because if there is something fundamentally wrong I'm not seeing it.

Approximately 30% of the Israeli population is Orthodox.  A similar percentage is chiluni, or secular.  As an example, Jewish law prescribes that a Kohein, a priest, cannot marry a divorcee or a convert, which can be enough of a problem for the religiously observant, but for such a completely secular couple it still means they cannot marry within Israel.  And, of course, intermarriages may not be performed.  Such people get married in Cyprus which, I suppose, helps out the Cypriot economy.