I’ve just got married to a daughter of Israel in Tel Aviv,a spot where worship is often seen as more of a challenge to Jewish identity than persecution itselfThe short flight from Tel Aviv to the Cypriot port of Larnaca is regularly packed with an assortment of loved-up couples, often partners from different religious traditions, and for whom there is no provision to marry back home. “There are 45 countries in the world that impose severe restrictions on the rights to marry of their citizens,” explains Rabbi Uri Regev. “Israel is the only democracy in the world that falls into that category.” For not only does Israel not allow for Jews to marry non-Jews within the country, but neither is there provision for Jews to marry in any way other than that determined by the orthodox rabbinate – all-powerful in things of Jewish matrimony and divorce. They don’t just prohibit inter-marriage, or but also marriage between Jews whose lineage is considered uncertain.
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that “Men and women of full age,without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, and contain the right to marry and to found a family.” And in a recent survey conducted for Valentine’s Day,84% of the Israeli public agreed. But the religious/political establishment of Israel does not. Those who come to settle in Israel are always Israeli enough to be conscripted into the army, but when it comes to matrimony there contain been cases where people are asked for photographs of their grandparents so that the religious authorities can ascertain from their facial expressions whether they are Jewish enough.
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Source: theguardian.com