Israel's Blacklist

When Israelis want to get married, they are well advised to check with the rabbinical registrar before hiring a caterer or ordering silver. For civil marriage does not exist in Israel, and all Jews--religious and nonreligious alike --must get approval for weddings from the strict Orthodox rabbinate. In many cases the result has been the dismaying discovery that they are considered psulai hitun--"unmarriageable." Under halakhah, the traditional religious law:

P: A Jew can marry neither a non-Jew nor a convert who does not meet halakhic standards (thus, according to the Orthodox, excluding those proselytized by Reform and Conservative Judaism, neither of which they recognize).

P: A woman cannot marry a man if he was her lover while she was married to her former husband.

P: A mamzer (generally, a person born as a result of incest or a liaison between a married woman and someone other than her husband) can marry only another mamzer or a convert.

In enforcing these and other rules, the government's Orthodox-controlled Ministry of Religious Affairs long ago set up an FBI-like system of files and informers to help figure out who can marry and who cannot. Despite persistent rumors, the ministry has continually denied that it keeps a blacklist. Then someone leaked to reporters the lists of unmarriageables that the ministry had distributed to rabbinical councils and marriage registrars across Israel. The lists include more than 10,000 names. Said Ha'aretz, Israel's leading daily: "It's a scandal which no democratic society can stomach."

The scandal is not only the lists but also the gossipy notes that appear next to the names. Examples: "The mother of the bride says the groom is not Jewish." "The Marcus family are German Christians." Since the list does not specify which of Israel's hundreds of Marcus families is banned, many anxious young Marcuses have been trying to find out whether they are unmarriageable.

Traditionalists have rallied to the defense of the lists. Zevulun Hammer, a Knesset member who belongs to the staunchly Orthodox National Religious Party, argues that they are essential "if the rabbinical registrars are to do their work according to halakhic law." That will not satisfy the growing number of Israelis who want laws permitting civil marriage. Until now change has been impossible because, although only one-fifth of the populace consider themselves to be religious, the N.R.P. provides essential votes for the coalition government. But the blacklist scandal could shift the political realities during the Knesset session that opens next week.

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