Many Israelis Can not Get Married in their Country

Yuri Gurevitch and Yevgenya Barzitzaki want to get married. But his mother's not Jewish. A sad, but true, story

"BAT YAM - Yevgenya Barzitzaki’s mother is Jewish. Yuri Gurevitch’s father is Jewish. Both are 24, Israeli citizens, and live in Bat Yam. Both study and work. They met five years ago, but when they decided to get married, they quickly realized they wouldn’t be able to do it here.

Their story is sure to be familiar to 300,000 other Israelis, mostly from the former Soviet Union, who have to travel overseas to get married. The issue is set to come up for discussion at Tuesday’s Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee meeting. “Native Israelis don’t have this problem, and don’t even know about it. I didn’t choose to fall in love with Yuri, but because only his father is Jewish, we’ve got to go away to get married.

“This is the only place in the world we don’t have the legitimate right to get married,” she said.

Jewish in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani here

Yuri immigrated to Israel eight years ago. Today he works as an air conditioner technician.

In his native Azerbaijan he suffered because other people considered him Jewish. Now in Israel, he feels even more like an outsider.

“I feel bad for my boyfriend,” says Yevgenya. “I’ve got no problems, but he’s really hurt. They gave him all the rights (of a new immigrant), including citizenship, but he can’t get married."

She says she dreams of a white wedding dress, but says she will have to try to make her dream come true in Prague.

“We tried to fight it, but it was too hard, and nobody in Israel really listened to us. We could grow old waiting for something to change here, but we decided to get married in Prague. It’s very sad.”

Source: Miri Chason. Many israelis Can not get married in their country - Wedding bells... in Prague. (12 July 2005) [FullText]