Never mind the rabbis, here's the chuppah

The matter-of-fact manner in which Maxim Serdhiukov recounts how Ashkelon's rabbi in August refused to register him and his converted fiancee for marriage betrays little emotion. But signs of his indignation are nonetheless present. "This country has a Knesset and it has laws, and if some punk rabbi decides to take the law into his own hands, then I will not remain silent about it," says the 24-year-old Serdhiukov, who was born in Latvia to Jewish parents who immigrated to Israel in 1993.

Serdhiukov says that Ashkelon's rabbi, Yosef Haim Bloi, told him that he would not register Serdhiukov and his Russian-born fiancee, Eline Roiz, because his office does not handle converts to Judaism. He says Bloi didn't care that the chief rabbinate approved her conversion while she was in the army. Then, a woman from the rabbi's office called Serdhiukov to further explain to him that he was "not the problem, but that the problem was with Eline."

That call prompted Serdhiukov to file two law suits - one against the Ashkelon rabbi's office, and another against the chief rabbinate for allowing this situation to happen, he said. "In a few months Eline and I will marry under a chuppah, according to the customs and laws of the religion of Moses," he added.

The office of Rabbi Bloi said it had no comment on the matter and referred Anglo File to the chief rabbinate. A spokesperson for the rabbinate said that Bloi has been called to explain his decisions on Monday to the chief rabbis of Israel. The spokesperson added that the rabbinate offered Serdhiukov and Roiz to be registered for marriage and wed by a rabbi from a town near Ashkelon, but they refused. Serdhiukov, a security officer for Israel Railways, confirmed this.

"Imagine you walk into [the Arlosoroff] station in Tel Aviv to catch a train to Haifa, when the ticket lady tells you that because you're Ashkenazi, you'll have to catch the train at Tel Aviv University," Serdhiukov says. "Would you do it?"