Court orders the State of Israel to register Utah online marriages

Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality, responds to ruling by Administrative Court ordering the State of Israel to register Utah online marriages

10/07/2022 20:43

Tags: Marriage · Marriage freedom · Utah County · Legal advocacy

Man in tuxedo with laptop

Hiddush welcomes the ruling of the Lod Administrative Court instructing the Population Authority to register online marriages of Israelis in Utah. For more than 60 years, the Ministry of the Interior has been trying to prevent the recognition of civil marriages by Israelis which took place abroad. In each case, Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled against the State, that the couples are entitled to have their marriages legally registered.

Hiddush has been pursuing freedom of marriage in Israel for years and represents nine Israeli couples who have married in this manner, according to the laws of the State of Utah, USA, as well as two Reform rabbis in Utah who have married Israeli couples remotely via video conferencing. Several petitions that it filed regarding registration of Utah online weddings are pending before the Administrative Courts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Hiddush hopes that now the State will acknowledge its obligation to register these marriages without further delay.

Utah online marriage is an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Israeli couples who are either unable to marry in Israel due to the Orthodox Rabbinate's monopoly on marriage of all Jews in Israel or who are unwilling to marry through the Rabbinate for reasons of conscience.

Utah online marriage is an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Israeli couples who are either unable to marry in Israel due to the Orthodox Rabbinate's monopoly on marriage of all Jews in Israel or who are unwilling to marry through the Rabbinate for reasons of conscience. We will continue to fight for the registration of the hundreds of couples who have already been married in this manner, and if necessary we will continue to fight in the Supreme Court. This is a struggle between respect for human rights which are repeatedly upheld by the courts, and religious coercion, perpetrated by Israeli politicians, contrary to the wishes of a large majority of the public and in violation of the promise of Israel’s Declaration of Independence for freedom of religion and conscience.

Now that the Administrative Court has ruled in favor of civil liberties, we will soon learn whether the State will accept the ruling or appeal to the Supreme Court in an attempt to continue blocking the marriage-freedom channel that has opened in Utah for Israeli couples. Marriages performed via the online platform created by Utah County, Utah, USA, are legal, easily accessible, speedy and affordable. This is a necessary and welcome temporary solution until a civil marriage law is legislated in Israel, which would correct the reality in which Israel is the only Western democracy in the world which denies its citizens the right to marry according to their own choice.