I don’t think telling people who want a Jewish wedding that they can have a civil wedding is much of a solution.
It’s a better solution than telling them, like the state does now, that they can’t have a wedding at all. The only question here is civil recognition. As long as there’s some way for people to have their marriages legally recognized by the state, whatever additional rituals is on top of that is just gravy. So, if you’re in that situation, get a civil marriage and then have a Jewish wedding on top of that.
Great taste! Less kosher!
If there’s no civil marriage in Israel, what do the people who aren’t Jewish at all (e.g. Israeli arabs) do?
Get married within their own religion - there are plenty of ways for Christians and Muslims to have a religious wedding. There’s just no way for anyone to have a nonreligious (or interfaith) wedding.
I thought LDS didn’t like homosexuals.
No atheists in Israel, then? Or do they have to leave the country to get married, too?
I doubt very much that Israeli law recognizes atheism.
“I’m an atheist!”
“Your mother was a Jew. Therefore, you are a Jew.”
“I don’t believe in G-d or keep any of the mitzvahs!”
“I never said you were a good Jew.”
Yeah, that’s true: In Jewish law, if you were born a Jew, you’re still a Jew even if you don’t believe in God.
Still, AIUI, jewishness is bestowed through the mother. So say a nice atheist boy finishes his service in the IDF, and celebrates with a trip to New York, where he falls in love with, and marries an American shiksa. He brings her home to momma and papa, who, having raised their son without regard to religion, welcome their daughter-in-law with open arms. They settle down and raise a family in a little village outside Tel Aviv.
Are the issue of this union Jews? Are they Israeli citizens?
No idea about the citizenship, but the Jewish thing would depend on who you asked. A reform rabbi would likely say yes, the kids would be Jewish, because reform Judaism generally recognizes a Jewish parent, whether mom or dad. An orthodox rabbi would absolutely say no, because again: if your mother is Jewish, you are; if she’s not, you’re not. There’s (AFAIK) no exceptions to the orthodox approach to this.
I imagine that they’d also be citizens, by virtue of their father being an Israeli citizen, regardless of religion.
Officially? Does the pope keep a list under his bed or something?
No, you’re counted via the records in the parish where you were baptized forever and ever unless you get the Bishop to accept a resignation from the church. It’s not that hard. Generally a letter saying I’m leaving the church and wish my membership revoked and they say, fine when you want to come back go to confession. If you die unrepentant no catholic burial for you. Which i find humorous because if you go to the trouble of formally resigning, I can’t imagine a catholic burial being much of a carrot.
Yes, the child of an Israeli citizen is an Israel citizen, so the kid would be an Israeli citizen. The wife would not be a citizen, but she’d have Israeli residence and would be able to become a citizen after 3 years residence.
The child would not be a Jew under Israeli law, unless he or she converted.
Here’s a look at “Who’s Jewish” as of 2000, I think.
But they wouldn’t be Jewish unless their mother had a “proper” Orthodox conversion before they were born (or they did that “conversion for minors” thing that the kid can renounce as an adult). So they wouldn’t be able to marry anyone at all in Israel (unless they convert to Judaism, Christianity, or Islam), but neither would they have to serve in the IDF (AFAIK only Jews & Druze are conscripted).
Well in most of Europe (including France, Germany, & Russia) everyone has to have a generic civil wedding before a government registrar before they can have a relgious service. Couples can still have a more modern wedding, but the state & relgious aspects won’t be fused like in an Orthodox wedding.
P.S. Doesn’t Israel recognize overseas same-sex marriages under local civil law? So does legalizing domestic civil marriage also mean same-sex couples will be able to marry locally? Gee imagine how the Orthodox Rabbinate would reach to that! 
Hillel wept.
Israel recognizes overseas same-sex marriages. It also has “unregistered cohabitation”, for both same and opposite sex couples, and “unregistered cohabitants”, have a lot of the same rights as married couples when it comes to things like insurance, pensions, inheritance and so on. There have been bills to allow gay marriage, but they’ve died in the Knesset.
Part of the reason for emphasis on ancestry is baptism for the dead.
Apparently they’ve retroactively baptized Hitler, as well as Jewish victims of the Holocaust, which I did not know.
I am back. My internet has been down for 24 hours. I am flying out for a month starting Wednesday.
I believe there was such an uproar (and rightly so!), that they had to issue a policy to stop doing so. (Personally, I find the whole deal disgusting, but what can you do)