Ahead of Jewish holiday of love, poll finds 67% of Israelis back non-Orthodox marriages

A poll released ahead of Tu B’Av, the “Jewish holiday of love,” finds 67 percent of Israelis support the legalization of more types of marriage, including civil, Conservative, and Reform Jewish weddings.

The Smith Research Institute for Hiddush, an organization that promotes freedom of religion, finds that 92% of the secular public and 31% of the religious public support broadening the types of marriage allowed in the country.

The survey notes that these figures include 68% of voters of the ruling Likud party and 41% of far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit party voters. Only 9% of ultra-Orthodox party voters support other types of marriage.

Orthodox political parties have long fought efforts to institute civil marriage in Israel, citing their religious objections to the state sanctioning interfaith marriages and other unions prohibited by Jewish law.

Israeli law only allows for marriage through Israel’s established religious institutions — e.g., the Orthodox rabbinate for Jews, sharia courts for Muslims — meaning that hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens cannot get married in Israel due to various religious barriers.

Although couples have been able to wed in civil ceremonies abroad and have their marriages registered by the Population Authority for nearly six decades, this process involves considerable expense and inconvenience.

Since December 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, several Israeli couples have been married through an online marriage service provided by Utah County, in Utah.

The survey also asked the Jewish public what type of marriage they would prefer to have in the event all types were possible.

Fifty percent of respondents say they would choose an Orthodox ceremony, 22% would choose a civil marriage (including 8% who prefer one performed abroad, and 14% would choose the Utah option), while 13% would choose a Conservative or Reform marriage.

Fifteen percent of respondents would opt out of such an arrangement and choose cohabitation.