A new government bill seeks to expand the powers of the rabbinical courts and allow them to open Jewish status investigations for any person, even if they did not request it themselves. According to the proposal, a rabbinical court decision on Jewish status would be binding on every state authority, including the Population and Immigration Authority.
This is a large-scale change in the relationship between the civil authorities and the religious establishment, sparking a fierce public debate centered on the question of who is authorized to determine who is a Jew in the State of Israel.
Currently, two separate systems exist in Israel. One is civil and managed by the Population and Immigration Authority, which includes registration of "ethnicity" and "religion." The second is halachic (Jewish law) and managed by the chief rabbinate and the rabbinical courts, which check Jewish status for marriage purposes. Until now, a clear separation was maintained between them, but the new proposal seeks to abolish it and establish that any decision by a Rabbinical Court will also be binding on the Population and Immigration Authority.
The bill, submitted by the Ministry of Religious Services and the rabbinical courts, is an official government initiative and is expected to soon reach the Knesset for deliberations and a first-reading vote. According to sources involved in shaping the proposal, its goal is to strengthen the status of the rabbinical courts and to regulate their standing in law regarding decisions related to the Jewish identity of the state's citizens.
The rabbinical courts claim this is a necessary amendment intended to prevent contradictions between state authorities and create uniformity in records. Critics of the law warn that this step could blur the line between religion and state and lead to the subordination of population registries to halachic rulings. The bill states that the director of the Jewish Status Investigations Unit or a marriage registrar will be able to initiate a Jewish status investigation on their own accord, even if the person did not request it or is not even aware of it.
This means that any person in Israel could find themselves being investigated about their Jewish status following a decision by a religious or administrative official. This is an unprecedented expansion of authority that raises concerns about violations of basic rights.
The rabbinical courts told Israel Hayom that clear rules will be established to define when such proceedings can be opened. According to the courts: "Rules will be established that will require representatives to show a concrete concern about a person's Jewish status before opening an investigation. It will not be possible to just accuse anyone. The rules will be formulated during the discussions on the law." However, these rules have not yet been included in the initial draft of the law and are expected to be determined only later within the framework of regulations.
The Itim organization was not impressed by the clarification. Attorney Ohad Weigler, director of the public policy department at the organization, said: "There are many problematic things in this. It essentially turns all of us, all citizens of Israel, into conditional Jews. So many people can come and open a Jewish status investigation process on anyone. This can lead to vengeful actions. What happens if a person doesn't want someone else to get married? A week before the wedding, they find someone authorized to open the Jewish status investigation process, and that's it, the wedding is postponed. What happens if her family gets scared and cancels the wedding? This is a dangerous situation."
Weigler added: "The bare minimum is to write in the bill, in the clause, that the regulations will specify what conditions are required to begin a Jewish status investigation process for any person, but they did not do this."
According to him, the proposal particularly harms immigrants from the former Soviet Union: "This is a huge trauma for immigrants from the Soviet Union. They came here believing they were Jews, living Jewish lives, feeling part of the people, and then they are told they are not. They enter a war to prove they are part of the people, and let's tell the truth, it's impossible to prove everything. I can't prove the Jewishness of my great-grandmother from Europe, she went through the Holocaust, they moved to Israel, there were no accurate records or records disappeared, it's impossible."
This pain is well known to Vladimir, a resident of the north, who underwent a lengthy Jewish status investigation process. He said, "The feeling is that they are looking for you, trying to show you are not Jewish, and you are fighting to show who you are. And at the end of the day, we fought for years to prove our Jewishness, we finally succeeded, and then more than a decade later, a new official arrived who didn't trust his predecessor's work, and we went through this process all over again. You feel alone, betrayed."
An additional clause in the proposal allows the court to add first-degree relatives of the person being investigated to the Jewish status investigation process. If one of the family members is declared "not Jewish," their relatives will be required to choose whether to join the process and prove their Jewishness or be registered on a "marriage-delayed" list.
This is a dramatic change compared to the current situation where such a ruling pertains only to the person themselves. Critics of the proposal claim this is a severe violation of the right to privacy and creates undue pressure on citizens to join a legal process with heavy personal consequences.
While the rabbinical courts see this move as a necessary correction that provides legal and religious certainty, civil organizations are warning of a serious violation of individual rights and public trust in state institutions.
For many immigrants and children of immigrants, the law brings up old fears and revives painful memories of constant scrutiny of their Jewish identity. The sense of trust built over years could be damaged if the state grants a religious body the authority to check the identity of citizens who never requested it at all.
If approved, the bill will grant the rabbinical courts unprecedented powers and will change the way the State of Israel defines who is a Jew and the way Jews define themselves.
