When Utah County in the US state of Utah launched an online marriage system in 2020, which allowed for the entire process, from start to finish, to occur remotely with a Utah-based officiant, it was thought that it would be popular with locals wanting to get married, and perhaps even with people from other parts of the US, sequestered during the COVID pandemic.
What officials didn’t expect, however, was to end up issuing around 700 marriage licenses to couples in Israel.
The phenomenon of Israelis opting to use a Utah-based remote civil wedding service began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people who could not get married in Israel but also couldn’t fly abroad, due to pandemic restrictions, still wished to have a civil marriage.
Israel itself has no civil marriage options, and all marriages are performed through a religious institution, which means that for Jews, the responsibility falls to the Chief Rabbinate, the highest Orthodox rabbinic authority in Israel.
There are a number of factors, however, that can prevent a person from having their wedding, and thus marriage, approved by the rabbinate. These factors include being in an interfaith relationship, not being Jewish according to the standards of the rabbinate, being in a same-sex relationship, or having converted through a body not recognized by the rabbinate.
In these instances, if a person wants to get married and have their marriage recognized by the State of Israel, they must travel to a different country, register for a civil marriage abroad, and only then will the state recognize their marital status.
In a decision announced earlier this week, the Lod District Court ruled that the Interior Ministry must recognize those civil marriages performed remotely via an online ceremony in Utah.
The court said that because the ministry had already recognized Utah civil marriages by video for some couples, and because it did not have the discretion to turn down registering persons who had valid documentation from foreign countries, the ministry could not refuse them.
At the same time, the court said it made no substantive judgment about the validity of civil marriage in Israel itself or about the marriage of the couple if they had tried to get married in Israel.
The decision could have wide-ranging implications, including opening an additional loophole for same-sex marriages and other legally disputed unions.
Israel has previously recognized same-sex marriages in various contexts and has extended adoption rights to LGBT couples.
What makes this case unique is that such couples in Israel might be able to have their marriages recognized without flying to the US to be married there in person.
The online marriage phenomenon
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Israelis being forced to, or choosing to, obtain marriage licenses outside of the country was on the rise, with a 2021 report from the Central Bureau of Statistics showing that between 2002 and 2019, around 10,000-12,000 people were choosing to get married abroad each year.
However, the strict travel restrictions put into place both in Israel and abroad caused this number to drop dramatically to just 2,800 people in 2020.
Utah became an option for people who were not interested in or eligible for marriage through the rabbinate.
However, in June 2021, the Population Authority, which operates under the Interior Ministry, announced that it would not be recognizing or registering marriages performed online for Israeli couples via the Utah marriage system.
The reason for this, it said, was that “the majority of the components of the wedding... relate to actions conducted in Israel. Most of the affiliations of this marriage ceremony are not to the state where the certificate was issued.”
“The majority of the components of the wedding... relate to actions conducted in Israel. Most of the affiliations of this marriage ceremony are not to the state where the certificate was issued.”
Population Authority
But, just over a year later, on July 10, the Lod District Court ruled that the Interior Ministry must recognize these civil marriages, just as it would any other civil marriage performed abroad.
While this ruling now sets a precedent that could provide a solution for couples who cannot get married in Israel but, for various reasons, don’t wish to travel abroad, is it really more significant than just another loophole for civil marriage? Is there any way that this ruling could be the start of legalizing civil marriage inside of Israel itself?
“I think this is kind of a subtle, easier way of breaking the monopoly of the rabbinate, but it’s just a step closer to Israel. It’s not fundamentally any different than getting married in Cyprus, except that it’s just logistically closer.”
Rabbi Seth Farber
Just another loophole
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Seth Farber, founder and director of ITIM, an advocacy organization working to improve Israel’s religious policies, explained that it’s unlikely that any groundbreaking change will come from the Lod District Court ruling.
“I think this is kind of a subtle, easier way of breaking the monopoly of the rabbinate,” he explained, “but it’s just a step closer to Israel. It’s not fundamentally any different than getting married in Cyprus, except that it’s just logistically closer.
“So, in that sense, it’s kind of like a legal loophole right now that makes it one step closer. It’s not like there’s anything fundamentally different about this than there is about going to Cyprus, except that it saves you the airfare and a few hours.”
As to whether he views the court decision as a positive step, Farber rejects the question, saying it isn’t a decision that can be viewed through a lens of “good or bad.”
“I think those are the wrong terms to use for this,” he says. “It’s not an issue of good or bad. I’m happy that it enables people who choose not to get married in the rabbinate to have an easier time with it.
“But, in the end, I think the bigger narrative here, the bigger story, is what kind of Jewish state does the State of Israel want to be? And what is it going to take to enable the citizens of Israel who live here to be able to get married here?”
Asked whether he thinks that pressure could be put on the government to allow couples to obtain civil marriages inside of Israel, performed by Israeli officiants, if enough Israelis begin opting for the remote civil marriage license, Farber was doubtful, saying that the numbers just weren’t significant enough.
“According to the statistics we have at ITIM, if the number of people [getting married through the rabbinate] had continued where they were going 10 years ago, there would have been something like 48,000 marriages through the rabbinate this year, and instead we’re in the low 30,000s,” he explained. “So I think the number [of people choosing foreign civil marriages] will go up, but I don’t think the numbers will rise so significantly that it will put any pressure on them.
“I don’t think this is going to make a big difference. Maybe another 1,000 or 1,500 or even 2,000 couples will get married through the Utah marriages, if it stands. But most of these couples would have just gone to Cyprus anyway.”
But if the Utah marriage licenses aren’t the answer to releasing the rabbinate’s monopoly over marriage in Israel, what then, could be the solution?
To Farber, there doesn’t appear to be any easy path.
“In the end, the citizens of the State of Israel and the government of the State of Israel have a difficult decision to make. I believe, as an Orthodox rabbi, that there’s a way to make the decision that’s halachicly responsible, that recognizes and respects the needs of the Jewish citizens of Israel and doesn’t coerce or force people to do something that they don’t want to do.”
As an organization that works to make Israel’s religious establishments more inclusive, ITIM believes that the answer to the rabbinate’s monopoly on marriage isn’t to simply encourage more marriage abroad, but, rather, to open up the opportunity for marriage inside of Israel to more people.
“The position of ITIM is that we think there should be choices in Israel,” says Farber. “You know, we want Jews to have choices to be able to marry in Jewish ways. We think there’s more than one Jewish way to get married, and even more than one Orthodox way to get married. So we’re trying to figure out why the rabbinate doesn’t just have a monopoly on all Jews in this country, but on all Orthodox Jews in this country. So we believe in choices.
“What we’d like to see is that the Israeli government, over the course of the long term, takes responsibility to enable Jews to get married through the State of Israel, not through Utah or Cyprus or Las Vegas, or whatever the case may be. And we’re very interested in seeing people who live here, Jews who live here, in the Jewish state, have the right to get married here.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.