The majority backs civil marriage

The recent election brought the public debate over civil marriage in Israel back into the headlines. But even though some of Yisrael Beiteinu's electoral success stemmed from its support of civil marriage, it seems that once again, there will be no real change in the status quo with regard to marriage and divorce.

Before the issue of marital status is once more pushed far down on the agenda, we wish to present an up-to-date picture of the Israeli Jewish community's stance on civil marriage. The data was collected by surveying a representative sample of Jewish adults in Israel. The survey was carried out recently by Tel Aviv University's polling institute as part of the extensive research on the process of secularization in Israel that we are conducting.

We began by examining the degree of support for civil marriage. The vast majority of the Jewish community (65 percent) supports it, with only about 25 percent opposed. Among the secular (based on how survey respondents defined themselves), about 90 percent support it. Among those who describe themselves as "traditional," just over 50 percent support civil marriage and slightly less than 30 percent oppose it. Among religious and ultra-Orthodox respondents, about 75 percent were opposed, but 13 percent supported offering a civil marriage option. This willingness may stem from a wish to resolve the problem facing non-Jewish immigrants. On the basis of these results, there is broad support among the Jewish community for enabling civil marriage in Israel.

The results of the survey show that, like Yisrael Beiteinu supporters, more than 80 percent of Labor and Kadima voters favor allowing civil marriage. These two parties may benefit politically by supporting the issue in the Knesset. Among Likud voters, there is less support for civil marriage, but here, too, supporters outnumber opponents.

One of the main arguments raised by opponents of civil marriage, mostly supporters of the religious parties, is that opening up this possibility would undermine the Jewish character of Israel. Yet when survey respondents were asked whether they themselves would opt for civil marriage, some 53 percent answered "definitely not" and another 11 percent said "I think not." Only about 17 percent said "definitely yes," and another 14 percent said "I think yes."

Respondents were also asked how important an Orthodox marriage ceremony was to them. About 70 percent answered "very important" or "pretty important." Similar results were registered when asked about ritual circumcision (brit milah). Even in the group that described itself as secular, we found that most respondents would opt for Orthodox marriage and would circumcise their sons.

In our view, this means that support for civil marriage does not necessarily indicate a process of abandoning Jewish ritual. Instead, it reflects criticism of the official rabbinate and a wish to place private life within a civil framework and thus provide a reasonable solution for those who cannot, or do not wish to, marry through the rabbinate.

There is no doubt that the official rabbinate will lose some of its power if it is stripped of its monopoly over marriage and divorce. However, it is by no means certain that religion and the Jewish tradition would suffer as a result.

Yariv Feniger is a post-doctoral student in Hebrew University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Guy Ben-Porat is a senior lecturer in Ben-Gurion University's Department of Public Administration