What a scary thought young couples lifes are in the hands of Ovadia Yosef the cult leader of Sh-ass. Time to seperate state from religion as this farce has gone on to long. Couple are better off marrying in Cyprus, however that means the likes of Sh-ass and the corrupt rabinute dont get their slice of the pie and we cant have that can we?

Its the Rabbabut that should be shut down. They are real scum of the earth. They treated us with so much disrespect. The so called "Rabbi" sat there picking his nose, taking personal phone calls and ignoring us. When he did gesture to us that we can speak he told my future wife to shut up and would only deal with me. After that they put us through y gates of hell to prove we are Jewish. My grandfather was an orthodox Rabbi in Europe and I served in the IDF. My wife has similar story. Stumbled across Tzohar while looking at options to marry in Cyprus. They are super nice and proffesional and married us for free. Tzohar are saint. The Rabanut are a bunch of human excrement pig fu##ers may they rot in hell.

If even modern Orthodox Judaism is forced out of official religious life, then we know we are in deep trouble. We need a Basic Law, or better a constitution, that will put a high wall separating religion from state.

all jewish marriages must be accepted--you have a hupa,a ketuba, witnesses ,a boy and a girl;a rabbi is just another witness that halacha has been observed--why make it so hard if not for money!

If you are not dressed the way their rabbi told them to, then the rabbinate makes it extremely bureaucratic and difficult for two secular people getting married. If they don't want people to marry outside the rabbinate, fire the incompetent nephews and cousins of the rabbi who work there and only hire qualified people and management. They preach to everyone to be more religious, but their own greed and corruption is sending thousands of couples to Cyprus each year to marry.

I have attended 6 of their wedding ceremonies held for the children of 6 different friends of mine. Their ceremonies are meaningful and Jewish. A pity that their work real Keruv Ahavat Israel work is now finished. I am sad.

tzohar dos'nt want to work with corrupt rabbinate

what a shame that these extremists are getting it their way - i truly hope that in the era of public and social protest this is just not gonna go through!!!

Dear Minister Margi: In my humble opinion, your interference with the performance of the Tzohar's rabbis to wed the Israelis is plain stupid, unethical and immoral. Thanks G-d that I live in Canada, where any Orthodox rabbi can perform an Orthodox wedding based on the Halacha. Therefore, I urge you to reconsider abnd rescind your baseless and spineless decision in order to prevent more damage the the cause of Judaism. The Jewish people , specially the Israelis have enough outside enemies, the last thing the couples who want to wed Tzohar's rabbis in Israel need an enemy from inside, specially a member of the government. Please get a life and common sense, the sooner, the better! Sincerely Anshel Moscowitz

When I got married via the Rabbinate in Netanya, they made my life a living hell. First of all, I needed to get up at 5am to meet the one rabbi in Washington, DC who is approved by the rabbinut, and he only agreed to meet me at 7:30am on the other side of the city. Then, when I get to Israel, I discovered that their lists weren't updated, so they wanted to bury me in paperwork for three months because the new Rabbinate guy in Washington, DC didn't make it to the lists in Netanya. The only reason my wedding was not destroyed because of this is because I married a Sabra whose father had connections in the Rabbinate. If I was going to marry an olah chadasha like myself, my wedding would have been screwed. If I knew of a nicer way to get married, I would have taken it. It is ashame now that option is being closed. The Rabbinate was so unprofessional, they had no one who spoke English in Netanya, thus forcing me to get a lady off the street to help me translate my marriage documents. And they made me sit in on a lecture in Hebrew that I did not even understand as an olah chadasha, even though I hired a lady to give me lessons on purity laws in English. These Rabbinate treat all olim chadashim as goyim until proven otherwise on their pre-approved list, and even then are highly unpleasant to deal with.

I realize that money can make a big difference in the size of a marriage but there should be a small medium large package deal to suit fit every monetary level of Jewish Israeli family we lose women because both state and so religious leaders favor only the top wealthy rich do not find a way to fill the needs below them this is bad for our race as assimilation is a major threat to our people we are the least united people on the face of the planet by far another 5 10 years EVEN LESS it may destroy Israel seriously the Arabs do not need bomb us they can just wait for us to destroy ourselfs by a lack of support links needed that other races have this is the problem but never dealt with denyed hidden swept under the carpet 48 56 67 73 changed nothing W W II only showed this weakness since I was born in 1944 I have seen it eat away at our people PLEASE will you stop being selfish in the one 1 area of life good deeds are needed not strict law interpreted only by fanatics who see themselfs as Moses whatever the bible has done far so harm then good the bible will destroy us unless moderate interpretations are allowed RIGHT ??? Thank You... M. S.

http:/www.tzohar.org.il

To me that looks like where the market is going and so why not intercept couples there? In fact, someone could format a nice little travel group gig for families to attend.

It will be a big mistake to cancel Tzohar's marriages. Their rabbis are Orthodox and if they can't marry people, a lot more will go abroad to get married...and in a non-Jewish ceremony.

Tzhor saved me and my wifes life, the rabinuets gave us hell and tzhor married us we are so happy to have a real jewish wedding onour terms,

Excellent idea. They are a fabulous organization. The Haredi-controlled Rabbinut is part of the reason so many Jews living in the Jewish homeland are alienated from Judaism.

This action is counter productive to having more Jews in Israel. Most people want to get married then have kids, so this will reduce the chance of growing the population of Jews. The more difficult it is made to get married will lead many not getting married so quickly and most who just live together, statistically, break up and don't have kids. We need more families, more marriages, and more kids. The gov't should take some funds from the ultra-orthodox sectors and share it with Tzohar; it is in the interest of the country.