Will the State appeal the recent ruling to the Supreme Court?

In the Legal Trenches

As the conclusion of the court’s summer recess approaches, we are preparing to renew litigation next month.

18/08/2022 20:23

Tags: civil burial ·  civil marriage ·  Utah marriage ·  legal advocacy

Utah Marriages

Graph from the Central Bureau of Statistics, showing scope of marriages per 1000 unmarried 15+ year-old Jews (blue line) and percentage living in cohabitation among Jewish couples (red line)

The state continues its attempt to avoid pending hearings in the courts regarding Utah marriage registration and has repeatedly submitted requests for postponement. It is not yet clear whether the State will appeal the recent ruling to the Supreme Court, and in the meantime, it prefers to ignore the compelling ruling by the Administrative Court in Lod, and is refusing to register the hundreds of Israeli couples that are waiting to be registered as married in the Population Registry.

The reason for this refusal is clear. The data published last week by the Central Bureau of Statistics to mark the occasion of Tu B’av, the “Jewish “Valentine’s Day,” illustrate once again the continuous and consistent decline of marriages of Jewish couples via the Rabbinate, as the state attempts to force them to do, and the continued rise and preference for alternative marriages or cohabitation without marriage. Utah weddings offer a dramatic window of opportunity for Israeli couples to obtain civil marriage in a simple, accessible, and inexpensive way. They are thus able to circumvent the Orthodox Rabbinate, and this is exactly the reason that the powers that wish to keep the Orthodox monopoly over marriages want to block it. Many of the powers-that-be in the Interior Ministry were appointed to their positions by the Haredi politicians that led the Ministry for decades, and whose anti-marriage-freedom orientation as well as hostile attitude toward non-Orthodox conversions continue under the current Yamina minister, Ayelet Shaked. It is clear that a future government relying on the ultra-orthodox parties will prevent any legislative progress. This undoubtedly increases the importance of creative efforts allowing for interim and partial solutions, and of legal protection of their accessibility. This is exactly what Utah marriages offer, and serve as an additional example underlining the importance of our legal fight for their recognition.

Civil Burial

We are also progressing with preparations for the submission of two petitions regarding civil burial in Jerusalem and in Modi'in. As we have previously wrote, despite the fact that some 25 years have passed since the Right to an Alternative Civil Burial Law was enacted, the State has not yet fulfilled its obligation to implement this right. This is evident particularly in metropolitan Jerusalem, whose residents do not have any alternative available for a civil burial within a reasonable distance. The petition regarding Jerusalem will focus on the demand to allow an alternative, if only partial and temporary, in Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim near Jerusalem. In this petition we will act not only as a public petitioner but also on behalf of several local residents, some of them well-known public figures and academics. This illustrates to what extent this struggle is not merely one of abstract principle but one of very practical and human necessity.

We received a sad reminder of this last month, upon the death of Rabbi Dow Marmur z”l, one of the most prominent world leaders of Reform Judaism. His family was not allowed to bring him to rest in the cemetery in Kiryat Anavim, where they had purchased a plot years ago.

We received a sad reminder of this last month, upon the death of Rabbi Dow Marmur z”l, one of the most prominent world leaders of Reform Judaism. His family was not allowed to bring him to rest in the cemetery in Kiryat Anavim, where they had purchased a plot years ago. The family had to bury him in the Orthodox cemetery in Jerusalem, through the Orthodox Hevra Kadisha (Burial Society) according to its norms. This was due to a ban imposed by the State on the kibbutz, forbidding the kibbutz to bury individuals who were not residents of the kibbutz. We are in contact with the Israel Religious Action Center and the Jerusalem non-profit organization Menuha Nechona in the hope that we may take joint action in this petition. We involved in the efforts of Menuha Nechona to establish a civil, pluralistic, cemetery in Jerusalem, however the initial expenses required before burials can commence at the site exceed NIS 20 million, and the state refuses to bear these development costs. This means that the establishment of a civil cemetery in Jerusalem is years away. Only if we are successful in our legal efforts will we be able to prevent the continued severe harm to pluralistic and secular Jerusalem residents in the coming years, and ensure that as they depart this world, they will be receiving the respect they deserve, honoring their beliefs and lifestyle.

Politics and the Allocation of Municipal Land

In a completely different area, we note that we are working on a legal guide for council members of local municipalities regarding the allocation of municipal land. The need for such a guide has increased in recent years, in view of many cases in which political pressure results in the allocation of urban land for the construction of ultra-Orthodox buildings, especially for educational purposes, in the heart of predominantly secular neighborhoods.

In quite a few instances, this is a lever for bussing in ultra-Orthodox children from outside the neighborhood, as a first step to changing the character of these neighborhoods. Subsequently the ultra-Orthodox population are attracted to live in the neighborhood, and non-Orthodox families are encouraged to enroll their young children in these institutions. In principle, there is nothing wrong with this, and this should be part of a free market of ideas. At the same time, the primary principle should be that when allocating and using public land, priority should be given to the residents of a given neighborhood and to the needs of the nearby population for public services (such as a community center, playground etc.). Therefore, the process should be transparent, and the views of the local community should be heard and given added weight. It goes without saying that no ultra-orthodox neighborhood would allow secular or Reform/Conservative organizations to operate on its “territory.” In reality, the media is full of reports of tensions and conflicts in neighborhoods which for many years were of a secular nature. The entry of ultra-Orthodox elements into the neighborhood led to difficult conflicts, primarily “Shabbat wars” and consequences for secular educational institutions in the neighborhood, especially kindergartens.

The Guide will be published in cooperation with a secular NGO and will offer Municipal Council members across the country the legal background of the public land allocation process, and the steps that they can take to impact the process and its outcome.