Common-law marriage now!

[rug]

I propose “privatizing” marriage in Israel, not in the capitalist sense of letting a corporation profit from government responsibilities, but by restoring civil liberties and privacy to the individual.

By Irit Rosenblum | Jun.29, 2012 | 8:11 AM

The system of religious marriage and divorce in Israel constitutes a commercial industry that sustains itself through exclusion, discrimination and commercialization of family life. The bureaucracy at its center is a misogynist and greedy arrangement that profits not only from marriages but also from the religious-status investigations, divorce proceedings, alimony hearings and custody battles under its jurisdiction. At its heart is a business model that keeps Jewish citizens a “captive audience.” With marriage via other streams of Judaism being criminalized, the Rabbinate’s monopoly over family life ensures it entrenched power and a healthy income. I propose that couples of all faiths, genders and status take back the authority over their union from a corrupt religious system and live as common-law spouses instead.

The economic rationale behind the religious control of the system of marriage and divorce is compelling, and the former is no less lucrative than the latter. Do not underestimate the religion industry’s economic power, nor the role of economic considerations in the Rabbinate’s decisions within marriage and divorce proceedings.

In many places around the world, there is no fee for registering a marriage. In Israel, not only does the couple pay for registration; they also bear a host of other bureaucratic costs. I estimate that marriage registration alone generates revenues of NIS 24 million every year. When the rabbi who performs the marriage ceremony requests an additional donation for his services, costs can rise by thousands of shekels.

An integral part of the Rabbinate’s business model depends on religious-status investigations. The citizens of Israel should not have to pay an institution to verify the religious credentials of couples who request marriage licenses. The fact that the subject of the demeaning inquiry is also required to pay for it suggests that financial considerations are at play.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/common-law-marriage-now.premium-1.444875

I'm not certain but I think she is using the term "common-law marriage" as a civil marriage in contrast to a religious marriage in Israel. In the U.S., the trend is away from common law marriage, i.e., a state-recognized relationship which confers the benefits of a marriage without an actual marriage ceremony and license.

[trotsky]

1. Seriously, rug. DU3 makes it painfully easy to format your posts better.

Reply to this message. See the buttons right above where you start typing the body? See the one that says "excerpt"?

If you put a chunk of text in, then click & drag to highlight it, then click the excerpt button, you will end up with a pretty shaded block that demarcates clearly the words in the article and separates them from your own. Like this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

Nam liber tempor cum soluta nobis eleifend option congue nihil imperdiet doming id quod mazim placerat facer possim assum. Typi non habent claritatem insitam; est usus legentis in iis qui facit eorum claritatem. Investigationes demonstraverunt lectores legere me lius quod ii legunt saepius. Claritas est etiam processus dynamicus, qui sequitur mutationem consuetudium lectorum.

Mirum est notare quam littera gothica, quam nunc putamus parum claram, anteposuerit litterarum formas humanitatis per seacula quarta decima et quinta decima. Eodem modo typi, qui nunc nobis videntur parum clari, fiant sollemnes in futurum.

And now here I am with my own words again. Try it, you'll like it, and people will have an easier time parsing your posts!

[rug]

2. I'm sorry you have difficulty.

I suggest you raise it in the Help Forum.

[trotsky]

3. I'm not the only one who has commented on this, and you know it.

But I'm not surprised you decided to fling another petty insult.

[rug]

4. Do you want me to keep track of your coterie of formatters?

Fat chance.

[cbayer]

5. I am really amazed at how little I understood about the social/religious structure

in Israel before I started participating here.

I was not aware of the stranglehold the fundamentalists held on the population (is that a correct use of the term?).

[rug]

6. It's a real laboratory for church-state issues.

[cbayer]

7. I am guessing that there is a whole subset of the population who

identify as Jewish, but are not religious.

The people that I know who have lived there describe idyllic lives in communes. They have never mentioned any of this.