Utah Marriage

Hiddush – Freedom of Religion for Israel, Inc. is proud of its contribution to the advancement of marriage freedom in Israel. Hiddush’s legal advocacy has brought Israel closer to civil marriage than ever before. This was accomplished by a ruling of the Supreme Court [Administrative Appeal 7375/22] in which Hiddush’s position was accepted and the appeal of the Ministry of the Interior and the Population Authority was rejected. The State’s failed appeal was against a ruling in which we won in the Jerusalem Administrative Court, in our name and on behalf of eight couples who were married in Utah marriages.

Our petition was on the principle involved, and so was the ruling of the Supreme Court, stating that couples who were married in the state of Utah in the United States via the video conferencing marriage platform [Zoom] are entitled to be registered as married just like couples who are married in Cyprus or in other countries of the world, even if at the time of their marriage they do not leave the borders of Israel. 

Now the public in Israel has a quick, inexpensive and accessible marriage alternative that allows them to marry according to their own beliefs and preferences without the need for the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. This option also opens the door to the registration of marriages of couples that the Rabbinate does not allow to marry due to prohibitions of the Halacha, and of couples that prefer a secular or religious  marriage outside the established  Orthodox Rabbinate and free of its religious restrictions and non-egalitarian practices .

Utah marriage procedures may be accessed through the following link:
https://www.utahcounty.gov/dept/clerk/marriage/marriagelicense.html

For more information in Hebrew:
https://marriage.hiddush.org.il/about/utah

Hiddush thanks the Charleston Jewish Federation and the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago for their support, enabling Hiddush to advance Freedom of Marriage in Israel.