Panel on Hani Zubida’s show with Benny Ziffer, Naama Cohen, Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz, and Ariel Moav: 100 Years of the Marriage and Divorce Ordinance. This ordinance is Israel’s oldest law. The absurdity: it wasn’t drafted by Knesset members in the State of Israel – its roots trace back to the Ottoman Empire.
Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz and Ariel Moav discussed the fact that in this land there’s essentially a deed of ownership over how to get married, and what existed during Ottoman times continues today (without any real halakhic necessity), due to the adoption of the ordinance as part of the status quo in religion-state relations since the state’s founding. We explained how the Ottoman ordinance expropriated from the public the right to choose how to marry, affecting all of our lack of choice regarding our personal status.
