Russian-Israelis protest against marriage restrictions

[Gerald]

The wedding of Inna Zyskind and Pavel Kogan last week was one of the happiest days of their lives.

Friends and family watched as they exchanged vows and rings under a canopy in their quirky designer outfits.

Then more than 1,000 guests attended an open-air festival in Tel Aviv, with street performers and musicians, partying long into the night.

The couple's only regret is that their marriage is not legally recognised in Israel.

In fact, it was organised by activist groups as part of a colourful protest against religious restrictions on who can marry.

Inna, who was born in Russia, was able to move here and become an Israeli citizen under the state's law of return for Jews.

But she is not recognised as truly Jewish by Israel's orthodox rabbinical establishment.

And in Israel, only religious marriages, not civil ones, are allowed.

Uncertain status

As I sit in the couple's cosy apartment in Jaffa, which they share with their nine-month-old daughter and two fluffy cats, Inna explains her shock at finding out she was not considered a Jew.

"When I came to Israel, I felt I'd come home. I was brought up as a Jewish girl," she says. "Three of my four grandparents were in the Holocaust."

The problem, she soon found out, is that her maternal grandmother was not Jewish. And in Judaism, religion is inherited through the maternal line.

It is estimated that some 300,000 Israelis from the former Soviet Union, many of whom pay taxes and serve in the Israeli military, are in the same predicament.

A number of them came along to what was, in the end, the symbolic wedding party of Inna and Pavel, which took place on Tu B'Av, the Jewish equivalent of Valentine's Day.

"This was our demonstration," says Pavel. "We're secular people. We want to break the religious monopoly over this part of our life in Israel. We should be allowed a civil wedding."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14665586


Note: 26 August 2011 Last updated at 07:22 GMT