More than a third of Jewish weddings in 2018 were outside the Rabbinate – report

The New Family organization says that almost 29,000 Jewish Israeli couples got married last year without updating the Chief Rabbinate — more than a third of all marriages and more than estimated thus far.

About 8,000 couples got married in a civil ceremony abroad, 7,000 had a religious ceremony not recognized by the Rabbinate — Reform, Conservative, Haredi or other — while 5,000 others had non-religious ceremonies in Israel and 5,000 got a domestic union card from New Family, according to the data.

The data was obtained by analyzing figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Bituah Leumi national social security agency, the Foreign Ministry, courts, the Interior Ministry and the Immigration Authority.

Some 50,000 Israeli couples — Jewish, Muslim and Christian — got married through the state’s religious authorities in 2018, the report says.

While acknowledging that the numbers aren’t completely accurate due to difficulty in obtaining the data from official bodies, New Family says the data indicates how prevalent such marriages have become, marking a significant leap compared to previous years.