marriage in Israel

Demonstrators protest in Ashdod against the closure of businesses in the city on Shabbat, on January 20, 2018. (Flash90)

July 17, 2019, 4:07 am

Pew report: PA less restrictive on religion than Israel; Iran slightly worse

Israel is one of the top 22 most religiously restrictive countries in world, with sixth-highest level of ‘interreligious tension and violence’ — a worse score than Syria, says Pew

By Ben Sales

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference of his Likud party in Ramat Gan, March 4, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

June 27, 2019, 4:50 am

Everybody complains about Israel’s electoral system. But it works

Especially after this year’s political shenanigans, the chaotic, tribal electoral system gets a bad rap; it is also the source of Israel’s strength, solidarity and democracy

By Haviv Rettig Gur

An Israeli couple photographed for their wedding at a blossoming almond tree field in Latrun on February 25, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

June 18, 2019, 4:45 pm

Majority of Israelis marry by 25, most have first child by 27

Central Bureau of Statistic data finds women marry and have children at younger age than men; marriage rates higher among religious

By TOI staff

Illustrative: A Jewish couple getting married. (Justin Oberman/Creative Commons)

June 12, 2019, 2:34 am

Jewish divorces in Israel up 5% in 2018, with 86% increase in one town

Over 11,000 couples formally end their marriages; statistics don’t cover divorces for non-Jews or Jewish citizens who got hitched in civil ceremonies abroad

By TOI staff

Likud members cast their votes for the party list in primaries at the Tel Aviv Likud polling station on February 5, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

February 5, 2019, 2:16 pm

High turnout in ruling Likud party primaries as polls set to close

PM Netanyahu said to invest significant efforts in blocking internal rival Gideon Sa’ar, in vote that will determine party’s slate in upcoming Knesset elections

By Michael Bachner

The legs of bride Lin Dror (L) and groom Alon Marcus (R) are seen as they break two glasses concluding their Reform Jewish wedding ceremony held in front of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 18, 2013, in protest of the Orthodox Rabbinate's monopoly on marriage licensing and the lack of civil marriages in Israel. (Flash 90)

July 1, 2018, 5:34 pm

Foreign Ministry says alternative marriage video was mistake

Last week’s clip celebrating non-Orthodox weddings, which are not recognized in Israel, has been panned by both liberal and religious critics

By TOI staff

May 25, 2018, 3:08 pm

Peter Buchsbaum

Marriage is a basic right, ’til the rabbis pull rank

A new bill aims to extend the reach of Israel’s Rabbinate, the very body creating the problems the law is supposed to fix

Noam Oren (L) and his wife on their wedding day on August 16, 2016. (Yarin Taranos/courtesy)

March 16, 2018, 7:53 am

Orthodox couple appeals to High Court after Rabbinate puts them in marital limbo

Noam Oren and his wife married in a religious ceremony, but authorities refuse to recognize it due to their insistence on protecting each other from potential divorce refusal

By Michael Bachner

A couple has their picture taken before their wedding at the Jaffa Port, as the Tel Aviv skyline is seen in the background. (Serge Attal/Flash90)

December 26, 2017, 7:00 pm

Orthodox group opens ‘alternative’ marriage service with Tel Aviv rabbinate

New Tzohar branch is liberal rabbinical organization’s first collaboration with state-run rabbinate

By JTA

September 25, 2017, 2:31 pm

Atara Newberger Zafir

My father the rabbi performed my wedding

If only the Israeli Chief Rabbinate understood that with great power comes the responsibility of great kindness

A woman praying during a Women of the Wall service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

September 18, 2017, 6:31 pm

Worried about Jewish pluralism in Israel? So are Israelis, poll shows

65% of Israelis surveyed by liberal group by Hiddush want Reform and Conservative Judaism to have official standing equal to Orthodoxy

By Andrew Tobin

Rabbinical Courts Administration Director Shimon Yaakovi speaking during an interview in his office in Jerusalem, July 27, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/via JTA)

September 17, 2017, 1:09 pm

Rabbinate expanding marriage blacklists for ‘questionable’ Jewish immigrants

Report says Israel is methodically blacklisting olim of Jewish heritage, who are subsequently unable to marry in the Jewish state

By Andrew Tobin

August 31, 2017, 10:38 pm

Messianic Israeli couple cannot marry in Jewish ceremony, rabbinical court rules

Couple say they believe in Jesus as the Messiah and that they work to spread the Gospel

By JTA

Journalist and author of 'The Unchosen,' Mya Guarnieri Jaradat. (Courtesy)

June 25, 2017, 11:35 am

A Jewish American who immigrated to Israel asks why refugees can’t

Journalist Mya Jaradat loved Hebrew so much she made aliyah — but now she’s gone back to the US and written a tell-all book about how Israel treats asylum seekers

By JP O’ Malley

Activists, among them Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova (second from right), holding signs and wearing wedding veils as they protest for the right to civil marriage in front of the Knesset in Jeruslaem on November 2, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

April 5, 2017, 3:20 am

MK weds in Seychelles, slams lack of civil marriage in Israel

Zionist Union lawmaker Ksenia Svetlova gets hitched on Indian Ocean island, criticizes Rabbinate’s ‘monopoly on marriage’

By TOI staff