Why does it always sound like this site is bashing religious Jews, and their practices, or any influence they have in Israel. why does every Jewish practice have to be portrayed as an archaic practice that we speedily need to strip ourselves of... my point about how stupid this point is, is displayed brilliantly by this article because the idea of marriage is a JEWISH practice, two people can live together have kids etc etc, the idea of 'marriage' is a union between the two individuals and g-d. taking religion out of the picture seems to be quite contradictory to begin with. im just sick of reading these articles about your 'ultra orthodox' brothers and sisters as you called them, having a strangle hold over something you don't like. take your own advice an have an open mind.

For all his secular thinking, DBG was aware that without ensuring that marriage laws in this country follow halacha, there is no hope of continuity for the Jewish people as a race in another 100 years. To give you two examples: 1. Cohen & Divorcee - this may seem incredulous today to many of us, far removed from religion, but this was halacha - brought down in the Torah, for the past 3000 years; a Cohen may not marry a divorcee. The Rabbinute today have no self-interest in preventing marriages (and indeed many feel the extreme pain of couples who learn that they cannot marry); they have no choice. Jewish law is like a brick wall in front of them - they can't pass it. 2. Jew vs non-Jew - this one seems easy to understand - once Eretz Yisrael sanctions intermarriage, Israel becomes history.

secular marriages make as much sense as a secular bar mitzva. While I understand people wanting it for themselves it just does not make sense to me. Part of the problem though is that many Rabbis (but NOT all!!!!!!!!!!) act disgracefully. Secularists should also stop being so ugly and help the situation.

of allowing the russian goyim to marry jews or other goyim here in a country that they should never have allowed them to come in. We allowed the goyim in, they are now taking over. So much for the Jewish state....

Once we stop observing Halacha concerning marriage, we will cease to be a Jewish country.

My child is getting married, and has chosen to to take the path of the Couples Contract rather than have to deal with the Rabbinical Courts. Even though both sets of parents have appropriate Kitubbah from the Rabbinot. They want a life that is not defined by rules that were obsolete when Israel was acknowledged as a modern state nor that were set up by the Ottomans. The fact that marriage has 2 aspects seems to have been lost in this legislation: 1. Religious (included) 2. Legal (not included) The fact that 2 Jews born and raised in Israel need to register their love with a bunch of Rabbis who have nothing to do with their normal life or even the modern world has turned of countless Israelis to getting married here. Let alone all those who are citizens but not allowed to marry because even if the state says they are Jews they are not considered to be Jews by the Rabbis. This has to change.

orthodox community because it is not an altruistic reason to convert (even though it happens ALL the time in Israel and abroad). If the rabbis completely allow civil marriages this will prevent their problem from happening. People converting for the reason will be minimized. Secular Jews don't live by the Torah anyway and regularly break laws that used to be punishable by death (ie. Shabbat and idol warship to name a few). Therefore the rabbis won't have to worry as much about an insincere convert breaking into their communities and causing G-D to collectively punish them. And everyone will live happily ever after. The End

but dont stop looking over your shoulder because everywhere you go there will be a goy or non jew standing close by you, watching you all the time, taking over , perverting and maladjusting when you want to come to the lord.

B"H An important first step? To what? To completely de-Judaize Israel? Why are you so keen on de-Judaizing Israel? Civil marriage is here anyhow. Anyone is free to draw up a contract with anyone else, sign it and then celebrate it by throwing a party.

calling it civil marriage is wrong. This bill still requires rabbinical approval and then it only allows for marriage from within same groups- true civil marriage has not such religious connections and is totally free. True- a very long way to go. It will help little and many will prefer to seek a lawyer than have to deal with the rabbis.

It is a shame that the Israeli government is held ' captive ' by a bunch of ultraorthodox idiots. A civil marriage process is part of any democratic country. Even in some Muslim countries there is a civil marriage system in addition to the religious one. It is interesting to note that the majority of diaspora Jews have decided to marry non Jews. It is also no secret that many Israeli-born Jews are choosing non Jewish partners. Well, this is the answer Jews give to the ridiculous orthodox insistence that Jews must marry only Jews. It's a natural law that ppl want to have freedom of choice and not be forced to do anything even if it is for their own goodwill.

It's not that the majority of Israelis want civil unions because we don't want rabbis officiating. We just don't want Orthodox rabbis. Every Israeli I know is proud to be Jewish. We view post-Rabbinic Judaism not as our sacred tradition, but as many useless rules, made up by man, 2,000 years after we were in the Land. Now that we have returned, we need to get back to what we lost - before the Rabbis took over.

I think the vast majority of Israelis would agree: We love the jewish/halachic marriage. We despise the way the haredim use it as a tool to torture innocent people that a lot of people have problems with. Hopefully you realize that haredim see non-haredim (even the most orthodox) as just instruments to be used for their political agenda and consider them non-jewish (halachic jew or not) and Has veHalila you decide to be a Baal Teshuva, those are treated even worse. Enough said.