JERUSALEM (AP) — Artem Dolgopyat fulfilled a lifelong dream when he won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. But back home in Israel, his hopes of trading gold wedding bands with his longtime girlfriend seem to be an impossible dream.
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The Ukrainian-born Israeli gymnast was hailed as a national hero for winning Israel’s second-ever gold medal — and its first in artistic gymnastics. But the celebrations were tempered after his mother lamented that the country’s authorities will not allow him to wed because he is not considered Jewish according to Orthodox law.
“The state doesn’t allow him to marry,” Dolgopyat’s mother, Angela, told 103FM in an interview Sunday.
Her comments touched a raw nerve in this country, which has repeatedly struggled with balancing matters of religion and state since it was founded as a refuge for Jews 73 years ago.
Under its “Law of Return,” anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for Israeli citizenship. But while Dolgopyat’s father is Jewish, his mother is not. Under “halacha,” or Jewish religious law, one must have a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish.
This discrepancy has resulted in tens of thousands of people, many of them from the former Soviet Union, who live in the country and serve in its army but who are blocked from Jewish rituals such as weddings and funerals.
Israel does not have a system of civil marriage and Israeli law mandates that Jewish marriages must be conducted by a rabbi authorized by the Chief Rabbinate. Christian and Muslim couples must also get married within their faith.
Those who do not meet the Orthodox standards set by the rabbinate — including same-sex couples, interfaith couples, and Israelis not considered Jewish by halacha — cannot get married in Israel. Instead, they must travel abroad to marry.
Attempts to legalize civil marriage have repeatedly foundered due to opposition by politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties.
Dolgopyat’s mother told the radio station that her son and his girlfriend have lived together for three years, “but they can’t marry. They need to go abroad, but they don’t let him go abroad because he always needs to do sports.”
The Olympic champion, for his part, tried to downplay the controversy. “These are things I have in my heart, it’s not right to talk about this now,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
But Dolgopyat’s wedding woes have dominated public discourse, with politicians and a raft of op-ed articles debating the issue of bringing civil marriage to Israel.
A 2019 survey by the Israel Democracy Institute found that almost 60% of Israeli Jews support civil marriage.
“It’s not that Dolgopyat is entitled to marry in Israel because of the rare sports accomplishment he made, rather because he is a citizen in a democratic country,” Katya Kupchik, an activist with Israel Hofsheet wrote on the Hebrew news site Ynet. Israel Hofsheet advocates for civil marriages.
“He, like hundreds of thousands of others, ought not have to receive approvals or rejections from the Chief Rabbinate in order to exercise a basic right.”
Conversely, Yishai Cohen wrote in the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Kikar Hashabbat: “I wouldn’t want to live in a country that makes winning a sporting medal the standard for conversion” to Judaism. He said a conversion requires accepting “the yoke of Torah and the commandments.”
Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, said Monday at a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party that he “will fight in every way possible so that there will be civil marriage” in order for Dolgopyat and others to marry in Israel.
“It’s insufferable in my eyes that someone can stand on the podium, hear Hatikva, and get a gold medal in the name of Israel, and then not be able to wed here,” he said, referring to the country’s national anthem. “It’s a situation that cannot continue, and we will fight for change.”
He is an israeli, but he not a Jew. Pretty simple. As far as other religions? It is good for them to intermarry. But as far as Jews, we have to follow the law we are mandated to follow. Furthermore, him cohabiting with a Jewish girl is also contrary to halacha. It is much more difficult to enforce, but this does not make it any less a transgression. A lack of Jewish education leads to this dilemma.
He won for ISRAEL. He didn’t win for the ‘Jewish’ team, which is good maybe in punchball. His kinder will be Jewish and proudly serve in the IDF, protecting frum Yidden.
The jewish identity issue goes back way longer then the state of Israel. According to the Torah it clearly says “lmispochosim lbeis Avosom”, chazal, inorder to be more scientific and exact changed it to where we go after the mother. Even according to Many rishonin who agree with this, that it goes after the mother, would never call this person. “a non jew” if he has a jewish father, because at the end of the day it’s a machlokes tanoyin, and they would encourage this person who isn’t a full fledged jew to convert fully so that there isnt any doubt according to any opinions.
Lapid:
“It’s insufferable in my eyes that someone can stand on the podium, hear Hatikva, and get a gold medal in the name of Israel, and then not be able to wed here,” he said, referring to the country’s national anthem. “It’s a situation that cannot continue, and we will fight for change.”
The big problem is that the Zionists falsely consider themselves arbiters of Jewish matters and they also falsely consider their State a “Jewish State”, even though the only authority on Jewish matters is the Torah and Jewish tradition, which the Zionists despise and replace with Zionism.
All the Zionists need to do is admit to the world and to world Jewry that their State of Israel is Zionist, not Jewish. Then, they can do whatever they want, just like the gentiles that they so want to be (but never will as long as their mothers are Jewish).
The question now is, what will Bennett do when Lieberman and Kahana introduce a law allowing non-Jews like this man (father is Jewish) to marry in Israel? Will he continue to remain silent, all in the name of preserving the “coalition”?
you dont have to be Jewish to be Israeli its like levi,s rye bread for those who remember their add you dont have to be jewish to love levi,s rye bread
He is not Jewish !
Tge article does not say what religion his girl frirnd is.
Us she christuan ?
So have a christian marraige.
He is creating his own oroblem.
The determination of who is Jewish is the Jewish religion, not how one feels or wishes to identify. If one wants to identify as Jewish, they have to accept and follow Jewish law and have a halachlically valid conversion.
The Niturei Kara have a Jewish soul. The Knesset members who are Jewish have a Jewish soul. This athlete does not. Loving medinat Israel or not does not affect one’s status as a Jew.
Now is the time for Israel to finally adopt a halachic standard for who is a Jew. If only this would have been made law decades ago,we could have saved ourselves endless heartache and halachic problems. If all the frum parties and back this this time around,there’s much more a chance of success.
Good that he has roadblocks to marry a Jewish woman. And shame on his girlfriend who is willing to marry a non-Jew. Conversion for marriage is prohibited, unless the Zionist “Rabbanut” permits it….
The government of the modern state of “Israel” does not decide who is a Jew. The Torah does that.
One is only a Jew if he or she is either born of a Jewish mother or goes through an Orthodox conversion to Judaism and commits to observing Torah and Mitzvos.
Artem is not Jewish. If his girlfriend is Jewish, he should stop living with her and being intimate with her. He can marry her ONLY IF he goes through an Orthodox conversion to Judaism and commits to observing Torah and Mitzvos and marries her in a Jewish ceremony.
If his girlfriend is NOT Jewish, he can continue to live with her, according to the Noahide laws. They are considered by the Torah to be married, unless one of them moves out.
there are Arab Israelis, Armenian Israelis, Christian Israelis, etc. The fact that some one is Israeli does not mean that they are Jewish.
Just like their are Jewish Americans, Jewish Frenchmen, Jewish Russians, etc.
There is citizenship of a country and there is religion. Hopefully some day Israel will become a real Jewish state governed by halacha.
Unlike the falash who have ZERO jewish blood he is half jewish who is more Jewish in spirit than neturei karta who are subsidized