Major Challenge to Israeli Rabbinate: 15 New Immigrant Ethiopian Couples Are Wed at a Public Ceremon

Fifteen new immigrant Ethiopian couples were wed at a public ceremony here Tuesday in what was a major challenge to the rabbinical authorities. The marriage rites were performed by Kessim — the Ethiopian community’s own religious leaders who are not recognized by the Israeli Rabbinate as halachic rabbis.

The marriages are not expected to be recognized by the Rabbinate or registered by the Interior Ministry, which is under Orthodox control. The Absorption Ministry announced, however, that it would regard the couples as family units, the same as any other new immigrants.

The two Chief Rabbis, Mordechai Eliahu (Sephardic) and Avraham Shapira (Ashkenazic) are visiting the U.S. and could not be reached for comment. The Interior Ministry declined to comment.

The Israeli Rabbinate only reluctantly recognized the Ethiopian olim as Jews. They have refused to authorize marriages among them unless the bride and groom submit to ritual immersion, a symbolic rite of conversion. The Ethiopian community, devout practitioners of Mosaic law, regard this as a gratuitous insult. It has been a bone of contention since the immigration of some 10,000 Ethiopian Jews between November, 1984 and January, 1985.

Local rabbis attempted to prevent Tuesday’s weddings by threatening to withdraw the Kashrut certificates from the catering establishment which had rented its hall in the Yad Eliahu quarter to the Ethiopian couples. The caterers cancelled their contract at the last minute, even while guests were arriving. But a neighboring hall offered its premises and the ceremonies were conducted there.