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<\/a>Jewish weddings in Israel are conducted under the authority of a religious council known as a rabbinic court or Sanhedrin.<\/p><\/div>\n
The state of Israel\u2019s religious establishment is taking its persecution of Messianic Jewish believers in Jesus to a new level.<\/p>\n
A rabbinic court, or Sanhedrin, has ruled that a Jew who believes in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah is no longer considered a Jew for purposes of marriage in Israel. This makes it impossible for two Messianic Jews to get married inside the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Israeli couple who are Messianic Jews cannot marry in a traditional Jewish religious ceremony in Israel because they are considered converts to Christianity, a rabbinical court ruled on Tuesday,\u201d according to the Israeli newspaper\u00a0Haaretz<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was the first time a rabbinical court has ruled on the issue of the status of Jews who believe in Jesus as Son of God, after a Messianic couple requested they be married in Israel according to Jewish law or \u201chalacha.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple was essentially told they would need to deny their faith in Jesus as the Son of God to have a state-recognized Jewish wedding ceremony in Israel.<\/p>\n All marriages in Israel are controlled by religious authorities, whether Jewish, Islamic, Christian or Druze, according to laws first handed down under the Ottoman Empire. These laws were retained by the British Mandate and continued after the state of Israel was founded in 1948.<\/p>\n The judges wrote that if the couple \u201cdeclares 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The two in question were both born Jewish, according to Haaretz, and submitted a marriage request at their local rabbinate in Shoham, central Israel. According to halacha, they are seen as Jewish because even Jews who convert to another religion can still be considered Jewish.<\/p>\n Because of the seriousness of the issue, the case was given to a special panel of three very senior judges: Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, head of the rabbinical court, Rabbi Ahiezer Amrani and Rabbi Zvi Ben-Yaakov, Haaretz reports.<\/p>\n The judges consulted with a scholar on Christianity and missionary cults, as well as speaking with and questioning the couple.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough I was disappointed to see the decision of the rabbinic court, it doesn\u2019t surprise me at all,\u201d said Dr. Michael Brown, a Messianic Jewish scholar and author of many books on Christianity and Judaism, including \u201cThe Real Kosher Jesus<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn the eyes of most Orthodox Jews, Messianic Jews are heretics and idolaters, unworthy of being part of the larger Jewish community, even though they would consider us still Jews,\u201d Brown told WND. \u201cMany of them want to keep us out of Israel entirely, so refusing to grant two Messianic Jews an official rabbinic wedding is in keeping with their hostility toward us.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the decision is disappointing, he said, since all official Jewish weddings performed in Israel must be done by Orthodox rabbis, \u201cwho would gladly perform a ceremony for two atheists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo we should protest this decision to the government while still recognizing that our calling to follow Yeshua will bring us persecution and rejection.\u201d<\/p>\n Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat is founder of the Tel Aviv-based\u00a0Messiah of Israel Ministries<\/a>. He grew up an Orthodox Jew, and his grandfather, Rabbi Pinchas Porat, was a Holocaust survivor who later became one of the heads of the Sanhedrin in Israel.<\/p>\n Contacted Thursday by WND, Porat was not at all happy about the rabbinic court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n He said this decision will deprive people of retirement, medical and other benefits that come with a state-recognized marriage. He said Israel\u2019s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders are celebrating this move because they have long been \u201cfurious\u201d about Jews coming to Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Porat said in an email to WND it is very important for Jewish believers in Messiah to keep their Jewish identity.<\/p>\n \u201cA shocking new law passed in Israel by the Sanhedrin forbids the marriage of Messianic Jews in Israel. According to the Sanhedrin (Rabbinic Court), a messianic Jew is no longer a Jew but is now a Christian,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is unprecedented and is the first time in Israel\u2019s history since its inception in 1948 that the Messianic Jews are being targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n The new law will have huge ramifications for the Messianics in Israel, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, if one gets married in Israel, it must be in a rabbinic court. It is mandatory even for atheists, so we can see what dire consequences this new law will have on Messianic believers desiring to marry, as they will not be allowed to marry in a rabbinic court, which is where they get the document that is ultimately validated by the Ministry of Interior.\u201d<\/p>\n They will now be required to leave Israel, get married, return and apply for this certification of marriage to the Ministry of Interior.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ministry, of course, will delay the certification and legitimization of their marriage for up to as many as five to seven years,\u201d he noted. \u201cWhile they are waiting, by design, the Ministry is going to make this process as difficult as possible because the ultimate goal is for the Messianic believers to vacate Israel all together.\u201d<\/p>\n While waiting for this lengthy process, their rights will be grossly limited, the rabbi said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can live there but they cannot be deemed as \u2018married,\u2019 which would afford them certain rights in Israeli law, but now with this new law in place by the Sanhedrin \u2018Rabbinical Courts,\u2019 which control most everything in Israel. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years, the same anti-Yeshua demonic spirit is operating in Israel today.\u201d<\/p>\n This ruling did not just pop out of nowhere, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the true motivation behind this new law? Jews to leave, get out of Israel and go preach your Jesus elsewhere,\u201d Porat said. \u201cThey have no problem with all manner of sin including a gay pride parade in the main streets of Israel, which is a total abomination to the word of God. Not one rabbi comes out against this, but yet [they] will do all manner of gymnastics to go after Messianic Jews! God forbid they should be allowed live in Israel! There is a huge, unreported spiritual revival in Israel that the rabbis are apoplectic over. They deem the rise of believers in Yeshua as a danger to their futures, just as 2,000 years ago. Nothing changes.\u201d<\/p>\n The role of the Orthodox community is to obstruct and to destroy the Messianic Jews, he lamented.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a demonic spirit that is operating in Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cJesus said, \u2018if they will do this unto me, they will do it unto you.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of the the Sanhedrin is to intimidate the Messianic believers into leaving Israel, deny their faith in Yeshua, and to prevent new believers from making Aliyah (moving) to Israel. \u2026 they want all believers out of Israel. Just as in the days of Yeshua.\u201d<\/p>\n Porat said Christians of the West have a biblical obligation to Israel and \u201cwe must be in constant prayer against this anti-Yeshua spirit. The Messianic believers are depending on the believers around the world to pray and stand with them during this time of persecution by the rabbinic community.\u201d<\/p>\n The upshot of this complex situation is that the court\u2019s ruling is seen as a direct attack by Israel\u2019s ultra-Orthodox religious leaders, who many believe seek to expunge the nation of as many Jews as possible who are now claiming they are believers in Jesus.<\/p>\n \u201cThis new law apparently will cause Messianic Jews wishing to be married to jump through mountains of red tape, huge expenses, and years of waiting for many national rights to be restored \u2013 if they are ever actually restored,\u201d said Carl Gallups, a former police officer turned Christian pastor in Florida also has a radio show and has interviewed Porat on several occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cThis process makes for an interesting and unprecedented prophetic mix: At the same time record numbers of Jews around the world, and especially in Israel, are turning to Yeshua as Messiah there is a direct targeting of those Messianic Jews in an attempt to keep them from acknowledging Jesus Christ as Messiah, and even more significantly \u2013 to renounce their new found faith in Yeshua entirely,\u201d said Gallups, the author of\u00a0several books about biblical prophecy<\/a>\u00a0and the end times.<\/p>\n \u201cJesus warned His disciples, as He was standing in Jerusalem, that in the very last days His disciples would undergo intense persecution for His name\u2019s sake,\u201d he said. \u201cHe warned them about their closest friends and, perhaps, even family members turning against them and \u2018delivering them up to the authorities.’\u201d<\/p>\n One thing is certain: Tuesday\u2019s rabbinic ruling will not stop Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat from continuing his mission with Messiah of Israel Ministries.<\/p>\n \u201cThis only encourages us to further evangelize to the Jews in Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cThe rabbis are so upset as so many Jews are coming to faith in Yeshua and the book, \u2018The Rabbi Who Found Messiah<\/a>\u2018 by pastor Carl Gallups has them in great fear because it is an evangelistic tool being used to draw many a Jew to the written word of God and to salvation in Yeshua. This they fear more than anything else, which is why they must get rid of the believers. \u2026 Sound like history repeating itself?\u201d<\/p>\n