Ruling Sought on Whether Inter-marriage Performed by Rabbi is Valid in Civil Law

A spokesman for the Rabbinical Court of the Associated Synagogues of Massachusetts disclosed today that the court is seeking a ruling from the State Attorney General on whether a marriage performed by a rabbi in which one of the partners is non-Jewish is valid in civil law. The synagogue body represents all three branches of Judaism. Such marriages are automatic ally invalid in Jewish Religious Law (Halacha). a position reaffirmed earlier in the week by the Rabbinical Court. The spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Rabbinical Court had issued the statement because there had been a sudden increase in such marriages in Massachusetts. The reaffirmation followed consideration by the Rabbinical Court of three disputed ceremonies. One was a marriage of a Jew and a non-Jew with a rabbi officiating; a similar marriage with a non-Jewish clergyman participating, and a divorce under similar conditions. Rabbi Samuel Korff, head of the Rabbinical Court, told the JTA previously that all six partners in the disputed rites were under 25 years of age and that two of the couples lived in Massachusetts and one in Maine.

Rabbi Korff said the Maine couple had submitted its case to the Massachusetts Rabbinical Court because it is the only one of its kind in the United States. He said the Rabbinical Court had ruled that the two marriages and the divorce had “no validity whatsoever” under Jewish Religious Law. The spokesman, in explaining the request to Attorney General Robert Quinn, said that under Massachusetts law, religious organizations are authorized to determine the qualifications of their religious officials to perform duties related to their religious requirements and thus they authorise ministers, priests and rabbis to perform marriages and grant divorces, except for the Catholic Church, which bans diverces. The specific request to the Attorney General, the spokesman said, was for a ruling on whether a marriage performed by a rabbi which is invalid under Jewish Religious Law is valid under civil law. The spokesman said that if the Attorney General rules that such a marriage is invalid under civil law, it would apply to future marriages and not be retroactive. The spokesman said there had never been a court test of that issue in Massachusetts.

The Rabbinical Court statement said that, in a free democracy, in which church and state are completely separated, “it is conceivable for two young people of different faiths to unite in marriage in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a civil ceremony. But to have such a union solemnized by a rabbi in order to give it religious status and religious identity constitutes a sham and a fraud which that Hebrew clergyman would be perpetrating on the parties concerned.” In the statement, the Rabbinical Court called on rabbinic organizations in the area to take disciplinary action to expel from membership rabbis involved in the performance of such marriages “to indicate to the Jewish community and the public at large the solidarity of the rabbinate–Orthodox, Conservative and Reform–in exercising its responsibility of safeguarding the entity of the Jewish people and preserving the survival of the peoplehood of Israel.” The Rabbinical Court spokesman was asked whether the call for expultion was aimed only at the Reform rabbinate, since only Reform rabbis perform the disputed weddings. He declined to comment, declaring that the call for expultion action was aimed at offending rabbis.