The marriage bureau integrates three functions:

• Administrative function: The bureau operates within the frameworks of, and thus represents the Ministry of Interior and Population Registry in order to execute orderly registration of those getting married as well as the verification of the status of the bride or groom.

• Inspection function: the bureau also represents the legal authorities, the rabbinate, and the Ministry of Religion. Within the jurisdiction of the officials is verification that no marriage is being carried out contrary to the law or tradition. This function is linked to the traditional character of marriage in the State of Israel. 

• Guidance function: the bureau delivers information and guidance about shared living according to the Jewish tradition. In this framework the rabbi and the rabbinate provide instructions to the bride and groom at the marriage bureau.

The procedure for marriage registration with the local rabbinate in Israel is relatively simple, and generally quick. At times, as in any government institution, you may encounter lapses of a bureaucratic system, reflecting inefficiency or problems of computerization. Try to be patient and understanding in case there is a delay.

Take note: upon registration you will be asked to fill out a form regarding the family name you wish to take after the marriage.

ITIM can help foreign residents register to marry in Israel. For more information, click here.

When and Where? | Who Must Come? | How to Dress? | What is Done at Registration | What to bring? | Certification of Jewish Status | Who cannot Register?

For Israeli residents

When and Where?
In accordance with the decision of the Chief Rabbinate’s Council, a marriage file (tik nissuin) can now be opened more than 90 days before the wedding (as opposed to the previous requirement to open the file within 90 days of the wedding), but must be opened no later than 45 days before the wedding.  . At the same time, do not to wait for the last moment, so that you will not feel undue stress in the case that you need to provide further documentation or verify your Jewish status. If a marriage file was opened for either of you with another partner, you must cancel the earlier file at the marriage office at which it was opened before you proceed to register and open a new file.

You can open your file in the marriage office of the permanent residence of either the bride or the groom. This is determined by the city listed in the Israeli I.D . You can also open the file in the city in which the wedding will take place. Try to choose the office which is most convenient for you and for those who will be coming to testify for you. If either of your parents were married through one of these offices, give preference to it in order to make the registration process easier, and similarly give preference to a local rabbinate over a municipal one..

Please click here to view a Hebrew list of Marriage Registration offices.

Who Must Come?
Both the bride and the groom must come to open a marriage file. Only in certain exceptional cases will one partner (and when necessary, even another relative) be permitted, with the authorization of the rabbinate and power of attorney, to open a file on his or her own. The other partner will be required to appear separately, at a later date, to sign various declarations. Witnesses as to your single status can come to testify at a later point, even without you. Only one of you must appear in order to complete the file and take the ketubah.

In some of the Rabbinate offices you will be asked to arrive with one of your parents for the registration (In Tel-Aviv for example).

How to Dress?
Since the people you will meet at the rabbinate office are generally religious people and rabbinic figures, try to show respect and dress appropriately. Since you are dealing with a public body, you are entitled to receive service no matter how you dress, but you will be treated with greater respect if you show respect through your dress.

What is Done at Registration
During the first meeting the couple pays the fee for opening the marriage file, presents documentation, and signs a statement regarding their intention to be married. The marriage registrar opens them a file and gives them a file number. He will write the date of the wedding in the file, ask the bride to have a short talk with a woman in the rabbinate regarding the wedding date, and asks the couple about the officiating rabbi. About a week before the wedding, and after all the documentation has been presented and all the personal details have been verified, the couple is asked to go to the rabbinate and receive the Ketubah that will be used in the marriage ceremony.

Please click here to view an example of the forms in the marriage file.

What to bring?
To To open a marriage file, you must provide a set of documents that clarify your personal status. Make sure to bring originals (not copies) of all the necessary documents with you. All your personal information will remain confidential. Note: When you come to register, you will be expected to know what date you are planning for your wedding!

• Identification Documents and Fees:

  • Identity cards of the groom and bride
  • 3 passport photos of the groom and bride
  • Marriage certificate and ketubah of both sets of parents
  • A registration fee of 600 NIS (Students, yeshiva pupils, soldiers in regular service, National Service personnel, new immigrants and welfare cases are entitled to a discount of up to 40%.)
  • Certificate of Singleness* -Unmarried people who are not residents of the region in which they are registering must provide a certificate of their unmarried status. If one of the spouse’s parents (or both) are not married or have married abroad, they may need be asked to go through a process of “Hayter Nisuin” or “Birur Ya’hadut” at a local Rabbinical court.
    

*Certificate of Singleness 

Unmarried people who are not residents of the region in which they are registering must provide a certificate of their unmarried status. This certificate is received at the marriage office of your registered residence. To obtain it, you must appear personally at the office and bring the following:

• identity card with updated addendum, two passport photos, marriage certificate or ketubah of your parents (except if the parents were registered for marriage at the same office), a fee of 135 NIS (as of June 2002), and two witnesses. 


• Witnesses: You must present two witnesses that testify to your unmarried status. These witnesses may come with you at the opening of the wedding file or at a later time convenient for them. The goal of the testimony is to ascertain that you are indeed unmarried and Jewish. To this end the rabbinate officials will ask the witnesses various questions about you and your families. Witnesses should be over 18 years old who have known you well and know identifying details about you such as the names and occupations of your parents and siblings, addresses of past residences, your occupation and the like. The witnesses may not be your relatives or related to each other. One witness may serve for both the bride and groom. The witnesses should arrive with their identity cards and the number of your marriage file.

• If you have special status (immigrant, tourist, divorcee, widow(er), convert), bring the relevant documents.



• Second Marriage 
For those about to enter a second marriage, you must bring documents related to your previous marriage:

A divorcee has to provide documentation of the divorce from the Bet Din. If the divorce took place outside Israel, confirmation by an Israeli divorce court is also required. If the designated bride is divorced, converted, released from a levirate marriage or has a non-Jewish father, the groom is required to bring confirmation that he is not a Kohen. Such a confirmation can be obtained from a rabbi who knows you or your family according to the instructions of the marriage office. 
A widow(er) has to bring an original death certificate of the previous spouse. If the certificate is from outside Israel, it has to be certified by the rabbinical court. Verify that your marital status is updated in the addendum to your identity card.

Special Personal Status 
Convert - You are required to bring the original conversion certificate from an authorized court, the document of the court's verdict of conversion and confirmation of conversion from the Ministry of Religion. If the conversion took place outside Israel, confirmation by an authorized Israeli court is also required. Generally, rabbinical courts only recognize Orthodox conversions that were performed overseas.

New Immigrant - You are required to bring confirmation of Jewishness and unmarried status and the certificate of immigrant status. Documentation from outside Israel requires confirmation by an Israeli court. If you have migrated from Ethiopia or the Commonwealth of Independent States and you need confirmation of Jewishness, apply to the special court established for this purpose. The administration of this is handled at the national level and can be accessed by calling 02-6582839. To demonstrate your status, you may be required to provide a certificate of immigrant status and even a birth certificate of a parent.

Tourist - You are required to bring your passport, a copy of your parents' ketubah, and confirmation of your Jewishness and singleness from a rabbinical court. All these documents must be authenticated by the local rabbinate.

Certification of Jewish Status
EveryEvery immigrant to Israel must demonstrate at the time of marriage registration proof of Jewishness. Certification of Jewish status can be obtained from the local rabbi (if there is no doubt about Jewish status) or from the local rabbinical court (if verification and authentication of certain documents is necessary), for a fee. The length of time this process will take depends on who is doing the investigation, where it is taking place, and the nature of the documents in your possession. In the process, the Jewishness of the mother of the individual is checked, using the documents that you have presented (original birth certificates of the person in question, his mother and grandmother, his parents' or grandparents' marriage certificate or ketubah, or any other documents which indicate Jewish lineage) and through discussion with the mother and/or maternal grandmother. Old family photos of religious ceremonies, family graves with Jewish symbols, etc. can also be offered as evidence. If you have relatives on your mother's side, in Israel or abroad, who are recognized as Jews, representatives of the Rabbinate should be informed so that they can be interviewed.

Generally, immigrants from Western Countries provide certification of Jewishness from authorized Orthodox rabbis. The rabbinate maintains a list of authorized rabbis. For those who did not grow up in Orthodox settings, the certification of Jewishness can be a difficult process.

Additional documents:
The following documents can be submitted at the first visit to the Rabbinate:

• If the couple is not interested in a rabbi from the local Rabbinate, they are requested to submit an approval from the rabbi they choose to officiate the wedding. This rabbi must be recognized by the local rabbinate to perform weddings. If he is registered in a different area, he may be able to resolve this himself.
• A Kashrut certificate for the food that will be served at the wedding if the wedding takes place in a place that serves food. If the Chupa takes place in a separate location from the celebration or if the wedding takes place in a private home- the rabbinate will not be interested in the food. Take note that the rabbinate will not permit having the wedding in a hall that is opened on Shabbat, even if the food that is served is Kosher.
• Ishur Hadrachat Kallah: The rabbinate requests a letter stating the bride had studied the Jewish laws of family purity and Mikve. In some rabbinates, this is also requested from the groom.
• If the bride is pregnant, the groom will have to submit a testament regarding his fatherhood from a local Beit Din .
  If the bride is a convert, Chalutza or Chalala (that was born from a forbidden relationship between a cohen and a woman) or a daughter to a non-Jewish father, the groom must bring a letter from a recognized rabbistating he is not a Kohen. Sometimes the two witnesses that testify your unmarried status will be enough.
  
  If you are caught in this process, please contact ITIM at 9722-648-2205 or, in Israel, at 1-700-500-507.

Who cannot Register?
Judaism Judaism is interested in preserving the sanctity and distinctiveness of the Jewish people. In order to become a part of the Jewish people, therefore, one must freely choose to do so—through halachic conversion, and not through marriage. Marriage laws in Israel are in accordance with Jewish law; thus, there are couples that are ineligible for marriage. If you fall into such a category, the rabbinate will inform you of such when you come to register. If you get married abroad and return to Israel, you will be registered as married in the population registry.

The following couples are not eligible for registration:

• Jews marrying non-Jews: A Jew cannot marry a Christian, Muslim, Druze, or a person with no religious affiliation. The only solution to such a situation is proof of Jewish identity (if it was in doubt) or conversion (if the partner was not Jewish).
• Kohanim marrying divorcees, converts, a widow who performed chalitza or the offspring of a non-recognized marriage. The daughter of a Kohen may marry a divorcee or convert. Many families of Kohanim have identifiable last names, such as Cohen, Kahn, Azulai, Katz, and Kaplan. Not every person with such a last name, however, is necessarily a Kohen, and not every Kohen will have an identifiable last name. Such a situation can sometimes be resolved by casting doubt on the priestly lineage of the groom (by researching the family line), and in the case of a divorcee, by questioning the validity of her first marriage (and thus, her status as a divorcee).
• Mamzer with a non-Mamzer: The children of a Jewish woman who were conceived from one Jew while she was married (religiously or civilly) to another Jew are considered mamzers, or potential-mamzers. They and their offspring can only marry other mamzers or converts for several generations. The offspring of forbidden (incestual) intimate relationships are also considered mamzers. This situation can sometimes be solved by casting doubt on the mother’s marriage to her husband (who was not the child’s father) or on the paternity of the child. For assistance, visit our website or contact our hotline.
• Same sex couples.

• Temporary restrictions:
 A divorcee may not remarry within 92 days of her official divorce. A bride who is pregnant not with the groom’s child can marry the groom only a few months-two years after she gives birth (the precise waiting time is determined by the rabbinic court, and is dependant on when the baby stops nursing).
  
  If you are in this category, the rabbinate may try to help with a solution. For more information, contact the ITIM hotline at 1-700-500-507.

When and Where? | Who Must Come? | How to Dress? | What is Done at Registration | What to bring? | Certification of Jewish Status | Who cannot Register?

Step by Step
› Introduction
› Where and When
› Choosing a Rabbi
› Registration for Marriage
› Guidance for Jewish Family Life
› Honors and Roles at the Wedding
› The Ketubah
› Prenuptial Agreement
› Other Preparations
› Events Before the Wedding
› Immersion in the Mikveh
› The Wedding Day
› The Ceremony
› After the Wedding