Passover void of emancipation

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli families are set to convene for the Passover holiday to celebrate the Jewish people's emancipation from slavery. On this holiday, before hiding the afikoman and sitting around the festive Seder table, it is worthwhile devoting a moment to those families living in Israel who have been deprived of their freedom.

During this Passover I would like to sit with Irena and Moshe who are unable to convince the State of their Judaism; with Doron and Avi who recently adopted a child but are not recognized by the State as a family unit just because they are a male couple; with James and Mary, who are foreign workers in the eyes of the State but who regard themselves as Israelis, who were born here and fell in love here.

On this Passover I would like to ask a special carpenter to build a table that would seat all the thousands of young couples who are tired of the old system and who were joined in matrimony through civil marriage, reform Jews and unmarried couples, as a form of protest against the monopoly of the rabbinate in Israel.

If in each generation each person should see himself as leaving Egypt, this year we must see ourselves as Irena and Moshe, as Doron and Avi and as James and Mary, not only for their sake but primarily for ourselves. This is the time to pause and ponder on our moral image as it is reflected in the mirror, and add this simple question to the four Passover questions: "Why is there no freedom in Israel to choose the way to live as a couple?"

Israel 2007 is continuing to be submersed in the quagmire of an enlightened Western society and a dark state ruled by Jewish religious laws. Israeli society's real exodus from Egypt is still ahead. We are still slaves to the rabbinic institutions that clashes against us from the day we are born to the day we die. It is they who dictate who is eligible to have children and who is not, who is entitled to allowances and who is not, and who will be sentenced to be buried outside of the Jewish cemetery fence.

It is an institution that forces antiquated and humiliating customs on us such as "a rebellious wife," "haliza" (freedom to marry someone else), "prevention to marry," "refused divorce," the need to obtain special approval for a pregnant woman to marry, and forced "shlom bait" (an attempt to reach domestic harmony.)

The Knesset's refusal to legislate a basic family law grants rabbis the freedom to decide on matters relating to couples and families. Only a basic law that would define clearly what is deemed a family unit in Israel, as customary in other countries of the Western world, would put an end to the situation where we are all being held captive in a country ran by Jewish religious laws, and which is financed by the captives themselves.

The family institution is one of humankind's most beautiful creations, and instead of bonds or bars that limit the freedom of partner choice, there should be a framework that would support personal growth enabling couples to bring their joint offspring into the world. We must not surrender to the humiliation forced upon us by the rabbinate under the auspices of the State's official institutions.

On this Passover, let's open our tables and our minds to all those Israelis, who are being deprived of their basic right to love.

Irit Rosenblum is the Chairwoman of New Family, which provides moral and legal support ensuring all forms of the family unit are eligible for rights and entitlements