Abba Eban,
Former Israel Foreign Minister
and Ambassador to the United States
Chair of the HEMDAT Public Advisory Committee

It is a tragic reality that Israel is the only modern democratic society which has laws on the books which actually enable the religious authorities to discriminate against Jews. Not against all Jews…but against the Liberal Jewish streams of Conservative and Reform Judaism which the Orthodox Rabbinical Authorities judge not to be Jewish enough to meet their standards. It is sad indeed to acknowledge the fact that in Israel, Reform and Conservative Rabbis are not recognized and disenfranchised and that their congregations are deprived of their fair share of public funding.
                                                                   Abba Eban

Alice Shalvi
Member, Public Advisory Committee of HEMDAT
Founding Chair, The Israel Women's Network
Rector, The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies (Conservative)

Israel is the only democratic country in which a sole, Orthodox, all-male, patriarchal religious establishment determines all issues of personal status. In the religious courts, women (together with the mentally incompetent and minors) are forbidden to serves as witnesses. Thousands of citizens are denied the right to marry, divorce or convert to Judaism. To our shame, Israel refuses to ratify those clauses of the UN Declaration of Human Rights which guarantee freedom in marriage and divorce. Only when all its citizens are free to choose between the various religious streams - or to opt for civil marriage and divorce will Israel be a fully democratic State.
                                                         Professor Alice Shalvi

Rabbi Uri Regev
HEMDAT Board Member
Head of the Religious Pluralism Action Center
of the Reform Movement in Israel 

Israel is the only country in the democratic world that has no civil marriage.  75% of the marriages in the Jewish world and w5% in Israel are non-Orthodox and have not threatened the unity of the Jewish people.
                                                         Rabbi Uri Regev