Why interfaith marriage is on the rise in Israel - and why it’s a problem - Shavuot 2014 Israel News | Haaretz
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Rona Shulman and Thomas Lebreton had been together for six years and had two daughters before they decided to tie the knot. But they had to leave Israel to get married, because Thomas isn’t Jewish, and Israeli law does not permit marriages between members of different religions within its borders.
When they returned to Israel from France, where the ceremony was held, Rona and her two daughters received gas masks at the airport. Thomas did not.
“They said he wasn’t entitled to a gas mask because he’s not an Israeli citizen,” recounts Rona. “I asked them, ‘What’s he supposed to do if there’s a war? His family goes into a sealed a room and he stays outside?’ So eventually, we had no choice but to purchase him a gas mask.”
Avec de (rares) indications statistiques
The latest Interior Ministry figures available on intermarriage in Israel are cited in a Knesset report published in 2008. (The ministry did not respond to requests from Haaretz for more up-to-date figures.) According to these figures, 92,612 mixed married couples live in Israel, with the non-Jewish partner being a woman in close to 60 percent of the cases. As a result, the children of the majority of these couples are not considered Jewish according to halakha and, therefore, they cannot be married in Israel.
Less than a year ago – and for the first time ever – the Central Bureau of Statistics published figures on marriages performed overseas. Interfaith marriages performed abroad are recognized by Israel’s Interior Ministry. The figures, which refer only to 2011, show that 51,271 couples were wed in Israel that year, and a further 8,995 were registered as having married overseas (though many of the ceremonies had taken place prior to that time).
Et une ribambelle de situations ubuesques.
At present, then, a non-Jew visiting from the United States doesn’t need to arrange a visa in advance, but a non-Jew from the United States who is married to an Israeli does.