A Conservative rabbi was hauled in for police questioning on Thursday morning for officiating at private weddings outside the state-run Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Dov Haiyun was released after several hours of questioning.
Following a swift public and political firestorm over the arrest, the Haifa District Police said that Hayuin was not required to return to the station for further interrogation on Monday, after he had agreed to do so voluntarily.
Haiyun heads the Conservative community in Haifa and has been officiating at non-Orthodox weddings in Israel for decades.
He was questioned on suspicion of an offense under Article 7 of the Marriage and Divorce Ordinance, which prohibits private marriage and divorce, and establishes a two-year prison term for marriage or divorce without registration.
He was detained following a complaint by the Haifa Rabbinical Court, according to a spokesperson for the Masorti Movement in Israel.
"It's very unpleasant to be dragged out of bed for interrogation for the sin of carrying out weddings in accordance with the laws of Moses and Israel. I am not an offender, not a murderer, not a criminal. I was shocked," he told the Kan Public Broadcasting Corporation.
"It is hard for me to think of a less Jewish act on the eve of Tisha B'Av. The police were dragged in to serve as a tool for the Orthodox rabbinical court. It is a sad day for democracy in Israel," he added.
In a statement, the rabbinical court's spokesperson accused Haiyun of performing a wedding of a Jew born of an extramarital affair, known as a "mamzer" (bastard).
According to Halachah as followed by Orthodox Jews, a person born from certain forbidden relationships, or the descendant of such a person, is considered a "mamzer" and can only marry another mamzer or a convert. Conservative Judaism has essentially rendered the "mamzer" category inoperative.
In a statement, the police said they were forced to come to Haiyun's house after he had ignored a summons to appear for questioning earlier in the week. Officers were merely executing a rabbinical court order to question Haiyun, the statement said, adding that the Israel Police was not independently taking action on the issue.
"Iran is here!" Haiyun posted on Facebook from the police station.
Haiyun's attorney, Uri Regev, said he would protest the police conduct to Israel's attorney general. Regev, the head of the Hiddush nongovernmental organization for religious pluralism, said the state attorney had informed him in the past in writing that the enforcement of the law banning nonrabbinate weddings would apply only to those marriages that could be recognized by the rabbinate, namely Orthodox ceremonies.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid vowed to "stand behind" Hayuin and branded the arrest the "madness of haredi [ultra-Orthodox] coercion."
"This is not Iran!" tweeted Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay, calling on the police commissioner to investigate the incident and ensure "that the first case is also the last."
