The World Council of Synagogues, which held its Biennial Convention in Jerusalem last month, scored a major breakthrough when the Israeli government announced last week that Conservative rabbis will be allowed to perform weddings in Israel. David Zucker, newly elected president of the World Council, the international organization of Conservative congregations, said here today, “We welcome this positive step toward our objective of full and equal rights for our rabbis in Israel.”
The government’s announcement on Dec. 1 came several days after the biennial convention concluded. It represented a concession to demands by the Independent Liberal Party that recognition be granted to the non-Orthodox branches of Judaism in Israel. Zucker said that while the accomplishment was the result of political pressures within Israel’s coalition government, the climate for it was created by the presence of the representatives of Conservative Jewry in Jerusalem.
The problems of Conservative congregations in Israel were fully aired among the delegates to the convention. They adopted a resolution calling on the government, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and the local religious authorities to “permit all rabbis of Conservative congregations in Israel to officiate freely with the same rights, authority and full recognition as Orthodox congregational rabbis,” Zucker said.
The right to perform weddings was officially granted Conservative rabbis by Religious Affairs Minister Yitzhak Raphael of the National Religious Party which, like the ILP, is a coalition partner. The weddings must be performed according to halacha and the couples must be certified by the local religious authorities as eligible to marry. According to reports from Jerusalem. Raphael asked that his concession be kept secret so as not to antagonize Orthodox circles.
NO CONCESSION TO REFORM RABBIS
According to the so-called “status quo” that has governed state-clergy relations in Israel since its independence, all family religious matters including marriage have been under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Orthodox rabbinate. However, selected Conservative rabbis have been permitted to perform marriages on an ad hoc basis. Authorization was granted to six Conservative rabbis by local religious councils but this did not constitute recognition by all religious councils.
No such concessions have been granted to Reform rabbis and, according to reports from Jerusalem, the latter are now demanding the same treatment that was just accorded the Conservative rabbis. Rabbi Ady Assabi, coordinator of the Progressive (Reform) movement in Israel said this week that he would take Religious Affairs Minister Raphael before the Supreme Court if he refused to authorize Reform rabbis to perform marriages according to halacha. He said that would constitute discrimination against Reform rabbis.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
