Bayit Yehudi MKs Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and Moti Yogev are sponsoring a bill that seeks to prohibit civil service rabbis from charging to perform a chasenah in the confines of their city/municipality. The Ministerial Legislative Committee is scheduled to discuss the bill.

The state attorney general back in 2009 ruled that a civil service rav may not charge to perform a chupah for as long as at least one of the couple lives in the jurisdiction of his religious council.

The MKs explain that the state attorney general’s ruling does not correct the situation. For example, the ruling does not prohibit the rabbi from charging a couple from a different religious council getting married in his jurisdiction.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)