Report: Haifa Rabbinate denies marriage licenses to couples linked to rival body

The Tzohar rabbinical organization has called for a police investigation over a report that the Chief Rabbinate of Haifa denied some couples a marriage license due to their request that a rabbi from Tzohar officiate at their wedding.

The appeal by Tzohar — an organization of religious Zionist rabbis who seek to bridge the gaps between Israel’s religious and secular Jews — comes after Channel 2 TV said that the Haifa Rabbinate informed more than 100 local couples who had registered with Tzohar that their requests were being denied. The various reasons given for the denial, the report said, were later proven to be completely unfounded.

The excuses included allegations that one of the couples involved was not Jewish, that they previously had been married, or that they were the offspring of unmarried parents.

Senior officials from the Haifa Rabbinate admitted that the reasons for rejection were unsubstantiated, the report said.

In Israel, the only legal route for Jews to marry is through the rabbinate. While the Tzohar rabbis perform the actual ceremony, as well as pre-wedding counseling, the couples must still complete official registration through their local rabbinate. Thousands of Israeli couples — many secular — choose to marry with Tzohar, citing a more compassionate and understanding approach to the marriage process as compared to the more bureaucratic process associated with the central rabbinical offices.

Rabbi David Stav, founder and president of Tzohar, called on Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblitt and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan to open a criminal investigation against the Haifa Rabbinate.

In a letter published by Tzohar, Rabbi Stav wrote: “The actions by officials in the rabbinate constitute serious transgressions of falsifying documents, misuse of a position of influence, fraud and breach of trust.”

The Religious Services Ministry told Channel 2 it would investigate the allegations, and take disciplinary action if necessary.

The report came days after Ethiopian Israelis in the central city of Petah Tikva alleged they are regularly denied marriage licenses by the city’s rabbinate, due to questions of their Jewishness.

Under the auspices of the city’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Binyamin Atias, members of the city’s 10,000-strong Ethiopian community say the local rabbinical authority routinely demand they submit paperwork proving their conversion, produce assurances from a rabbi they are practicing Orthodox Jews, and investigate the couple’s backgrounds before ultimately turning them away.