From weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs to conversions and kashrut certification, there's a surge in demand for services outside the state-run Chief Rabbinate, increasingly seen as a coercive power center for the most right-wing religious government in Israel’s history
Ori Yoffe and Yuval Kestler got married less than a month ago. The ceremony, which was held in Israel, was officiated not by a rabbi but by their siblings.
“For quite a while now, I’ve been averse to the idea of getting married through the Chief Rabbinate,” says Yoffe, 28, referring to the institution in control of marriage and divorce among Israel’s Jews. “But ever since this new government was formed, my resolve has strengthened.”
By avoiding the Rabbinate, adds Yoffe, she and her husband – who live in the southern city of Be’er Sheva, wanted to make a statement. “We feel that the religious coercion in this country is getting out of hand,” she says.
The number of couples in Israel who wed outside the auspices of the Rabbinate has been on the rise for many years. For some, it is not a matter of choice: The Rabbinate will only marry couples that can prove their Jewish ancestry beyond any doubt, which is often a problem for non-native Israelis – especially those who have immigrated from the former Soviet bloc countries and may lack proper documentation of their lineage.
Many others, however, choose to marry outside the Rabbinate for ideological reasons, preferring a more egalitarian and less rigidly Orthodox ceremony. Jewish couples who wed outside the Rabbinate cannot register as married in Israel unless they undergo a civil ceremony outside the country, which many do.
Yoffe: “For quite a while now, I’ve been averse to the idea of getting married through the Chief Rabbinate. But ever since this new government was formed, my resolve has strengthened.”
Since taking power half a year ago, Israel’s new government – the most religious in the country’s history – has been actively promoting a series of legislative initiatives, all aimed at enhancing the authority of the Rabbinate. In one of its first moves, it shelved a reform initiated by the previous government that would have broken the Rabbinate’s monopoly over kashrut supervision.
As part of the coalition negotiations, it agreed to promote legislation that would expand the powers of the rabbinical courts to adjudicate on a wide range of civil matters (and not only family disputes), as well as legislation that would end recognition of any conversions conducted outside the rigidly Orthodox state system.
Members of the governing coalition have also begun working on legislation that would authorize the Rabbinate to determine what qualifies as “local custom” at the Western Wall – in the hope of outlawing prayer services by groups like the multidenominational Women of the Wall, which do not meet their strictly Orthodox standards.
Organizations that provide religious and life-cycle services outside the auspices of the Orthodox establishment say they are witnessing growing pushback from the public. Indeed, figures shared with Haaretz about their activities since the start of the year indicate that Israelis are increasingly opting to get their services elsewhere.
In the first six months of 2023, the number of marriage ceremonies officiated by rabbis affiliated with Chuppot – an organization that provides Orthodox wedding services outside the auspices of the Rabbinate – was 16 percent higher than in the corresponding period last year.
“It’s very hard to scientifically state that the current increase is a result of the public mood, because we’ve seen steady growth in all of our years of activity, but there definitely seems to be a more dramatic curve,” says founder and president Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz. Chuppot was established five years ago and marries on average about 100 couples a year who either cannot or choose not to marry through the Rabbinate but nonetheless want a proper Jewish wedding.
“In conversations we’re having with couples, we’re also hearing that one of the things motivating them is the fear of the Rabbinate’s control,” he adds. “And it makes sense because there has been lots of focus on this topic in the news in recent months.”
A trend that has also become evident in recent months, says Leibowitz, is a drop in the number of couples being wed through his organization who are also undergoing civil ceremonies abroad that would allow them to register as married in Israel.
The reason, he surmises, is that they do not want to have to deal with the rabbinical courts should they eventually divorce. (Even couples who do not marry through the Rabbinate may be forced to go through divorce proceedings in the rabbinical courts if their wedding was performed in accordance with halakha.)
Israel Hofsheet, an organization that advocates for religious freedom, also reports an uptick in business in recent months. According to CEO Uri Keidar, the number of weddings conducted by officiators trained by his organization rose 22 percent in the first half of 2023 compared with the same period last year. These are not halakhic ceremonies but rather civil ones, known to be especially popular among gay couples who cannot marry legally in Israel.
Although she does not have figures available for the current wedding season, Anna Kislanski, the executive director of the Reform movement in Israel, says: “We are definitely seeing signs of a bigger demand for egalitarian weddings performed by our Reform rabbis.”
Prenups and conversions
Another sign of pushback against the Rabbinate is the growing interest in prenuptial agreements that allow couples married halakhically to avoid the rabbinical courts should they divorce. According to attorney Nitzan Caspi Shilony, head of the legal department at the Center for Women’s Justice, the number of inquiries received by her organization about such prenups was up 10 percent in the first half of the year.
But it is not only in matters of marriage and divorce that Israelis are seeking alternatives. A recent report published by ITIM, an organization that advocates for immigrants and converts, found that only a tiny percentage of individuals eligible to convert to Judaism in Israel – fewer than 1 percent – choose to undergo the process through the rigidly Orthodox national conversion program. Among those who do, it found that more than half drop out.
ITIM runs Giyur K’Halacha, an Orthodox conversion program that is more lenient than the national conversion program. Unlike the national conversion program, which is run through the Prime Minister’s Office, Giyur K’Halacha is not recognized by the Rabbinate. An individual converting through this program, therefore, would not be eligible to marry legally in Israel.
Rabbi Farber: “Initiatives of the present government are making people feel even more disenfranchised and alienated from religious life”
Despite that, the popularity of this program has grown in recent months, according to ITIM founder and executive director Rabbi Seth Farber. “Initiatives of the present government are making people feel even more disenfranchised and alienated from religious life. As a result, at Giyur K’Halacha we’re seeing a greater interest in converting outside the Rabbinate,” he says.
The Reform movement, which runs its own private conversion program, reports a similar trend. According to program director Rabbi Galia Sadan, enrollment has spiked twice in recent years: Once after the March 2021 High Court of Justice verdict recognizing non-Orthodox conversions for the purpose of citizenship in Israel, and then again after the November 1 election that brought the religious right to power.
“Right after the election, there was a lot of talk about the new government’s plan to legislate against non-Orthodox conversions, and we saw another big wave – so big, in fact, that we needed to hire extra manpower and convene our rabbinical courts more frequently,” Sadan says. “Most of those enrolling in the program were candidates who only required a short conversion program of a few months – either children who hadn’t yet been converted, or Israelis with Jewish fathers but not Jewish mothers.”
When the new government suspended the kashrut reform, an organization of Orthodox rabbis that provides its own private certification was forced to readjust its optimistic forecasts. If private certification was not recognized, these rabbis figured, their business would probably not grow much. Much to the surprise of Tzohar – the group of liberal Orthodox rabbis who run this private certification program – that has not been the case.
According to Eliyahu Vashdi, vice president of the rabbinical organization, a total of 93 restaurants and hotels chose Tzohar certification over the Rabbinate in the first six months of 2023 – a nearly 20-percent increase over the same period last year. Out of this total, about 10 percent previously worked with the Rabbinate.
“Despite predictions to the contrary, we continue to grow and gain footholds in new cities,” he says.
It is especially noteworthy considering that Tzohar is prohibited from using the term “kosher” or its derivatives in its certifications, as these are considered exclusive to the Rabbinate.
The Ein Gev Holiday Resort on the Sea of Galilee ended its relationship with the Rabbinate and switched to Tzohar a few months ago. Asked what prompted him to cut ties with the Rabbinate, general manager Haim Statiahu said: “Let’s just say we didn’t get along.”
Bar and bat mitzvahs
The growing popularity of bar and bat mitzvahs at the Western Wall’s egalitarian prayer space, run largely by the Conservative-Masorti movement in Israel, is yet another sign of the public mood these days.
The movement’s director of development, Rabbi Mikie Goldstein, says the number of bar and bat mitzvahs held at the space in the first six months of the year was 15 percent higher than in the same period in 2022. Based on bookings for next year, this upward trend is expected to continue.
Explaining what motivates growing number of parents to opt for this egalitarian alternative, he says: “There can be little doubt that the present government has led many people to reassess how they engage with Judaism, especially around life-cycle events. While the Rabbinate still has a stranglehold over weddings, divorce and conversion, many unaffiliated Israeli families are now looking to Masorti and other non-Orthodox movements for bar and bat mitzvahs and other celebrations, as well as for prayer services and learning opportunities.”
Tani Frank: “It seems natural that when you have so many legislative initiatives that are meant to strengthen the monopoly of the Rabbinate, you will also have many people looking for alternatives.”
Tani Frank, director of the Judaism and State Policy Center at the Jerusalem-based Shalom Hartman Institute, is not surprised that growing numbers of Israelis are seeking options outside the state-run institutions for their religious services.
“It seems natural that when you have so many legislative initiatives that are meant to strengthen the monopoly of the Rabbinate, you will also have many people looking for alternatives,” he says.
But he does not feel very “optimistic,” as he terms it, that this trend can continue in the long term. “There are built-in limits to these sorts of alternatives when they’re not recognized at all,” he says. “The only real hope we have is that all these government initiatives will eventually be blocked. Right now, though, it looks like the train is moving ahead at full speed.”