Ultra-Orthodox rabbi refuses to marry Liberman’s son over political fight

Rabbi Baruch Dov Diskin turns down Amos Liberman’s marriage request due to his father’s enmity with religious community

Avigdor Liberman and his son Amos cook with a chef at a food festival held in Jerusalem, March 29, 2011. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Avigdor Liberman and his son Amos cook with a chef at a food festival held in Jerusalem, March 29, 2011. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

An ultra-Orthodox rabbi has refused to officiate the wedding of Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman’s son due to Liberman’s bad blood with the ultra-Orthodox community.

Rabbi Baruch Dov Diskin declined to marry Amos Liberman, who is ultra-Orthodox and studied with Diskin in Bnei Brak, where the two became close, Channel 12 news reported on Wednesday.

“Liberman has become an enemy of the ultra-Orthodox community and the rabbi didn’t want to meet him,” one of the rabbi’s associates said. “Amos isn’t guilty, but the rabbi is a well-known character in the community, and if he participates in the wedding it could look like a kind of familiarity or support for an enemy. It’s a problem everywhere that Yvette goes,” he said, using a nickname for Liberman.

Instead of Diskin, Rabbi David Grossman, who officiated at Bar Rafaeli’s wedding, conducted Thursday’s ceremony.

Amos Liberman reportedly wanted men and women separated at the wedding, however, while his father preferred a partial separation, so the ceremony would not have an ultra-Orthodox character. It was not clear which approach eventually won out.

Liberman’s office responded to the reports ahead of the ceremony, saying: “The wedding will be Jewish and not ultra-Orthodox, in that there will be rabbis and both secular and religious attendees.”

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