Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger on Thursday contacted all 120 MKs and urged them to reject a Knesset bill that would grant couples the freedom to choose the rabbinate office where they marry.
Acknowledging that it was unusual for a chief rabbi to intervene in a political issue, Metzger wrote a letter outlining the negative consequences of the so-called “Tzohar bill,” proposed by MK Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beiteinu). At present, couples are affiliated to rabbinate offices according to their place of residence.
Metzger wrote he was approaching the MKs “from heart to heart” in an effort to halt the legislation. The bill is named after an organization of modern Orthodox rabbis that has offered to perform marriages to Jewish couples wishing to wed in Israel. There is no Jewish civil marriage within Israel.
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