A Messianic Jewish couple have been barred from being married under a traditional Jewish ceremony in Israel because the country’s rabbinical court deemed them converts to Christianity. In a ruling made Tuesday, three senior judges at the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court said that man and woman, who demonstrated that they were Jews by birth, could not be married under Jewish law because of their believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In Israel, questions about marriage eligibility are dealt with by religious courts.
It was reportedly the first time the rabbinate’s legal arm had to rule on questions about the Jewishness of Messianic Jews – often referred to as Jews for Jesus – who are estimated to number in the tens of thousands in Israel and many more in other countries including the United States. “Regretfully, this cult of Jews who believe in Jesus, including the petitioners in this case, are without doubt Jews who have gone over to another religion, converted from their religion to another faith, and even were baptized for this new faith,” the rabbinical judges wrote in their ruling, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The three judges, Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, Rabbi Ahiezer Amrani and Rabbi Zvi Ben-Yaakov. wrote that if the couple “declares before the court they have completely given up their Christian beliefs, including their belonging to a Messianic Jewish community and missionary activities, the court will discuss their matter anew,” Haaretz reported. According to the reports, the Messianic couple informed the court that they believe in the Holy Trinity, New Testament and were baptized at an unknown point in time, all of which are considered alien to mainstream Jewish faith. Orthodox Jewish groups in Israel fear and resent Messianic Jews’ missionary tendencies, although they are often fervently Zionist in their political outlook.