Kotel Protest: Women wearing prayer shawls pray at their monthly protest at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Image by getty images

Sixty percent of Israeli Jews support the work of American Jewish coalitions whose goal is to advance civil marriage in Israel, according to a new poll.

The survey released Monday by Hiddush, an Israeli organization that aims to advance religious pluralism, found that nearly one-third of Israelis strongly support U.S. Jewish involvement in the marriage debate, while 28 percent moderately support such involvement. Israel allows only Orthodox marriage for Jews in Israel, though solid majorities of Israeli Jews have for years favored instituting civil marriage.

In addition, the poll found a majority of Israeli Jews believe Israel should take Diaspora Jewry’s views into consideration when setting religious policy. Fifty-three percent of Israeli Jews support that position, with 47 percent opposed. Majorities of voters for all of Israel’s centrist and left-wing parties support considering Diaspora views.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Religious Israelis, however are opposed to taking Diaspora views into account. Sixty-one percent of religious Zionist Israelis oppose consideration of Diaspora views, as do 73 percent of haredi Orthodox Israelis.

The debate over freedom of marriage also tops the list of which religious policy issues Israeli Jews consider most important. Thirty-eight percent of respondents view the marriage debate as the most important religious issue, while 33 percent place it second. Israeli Jews consider the debate over whether to allow commerce and public transit on Shabbat to be second-most important, followed by the debate over Jewish conversion and the issue of excluding women from public spaces.

The debate over prayer arrangements at the Western Wall, a major focus of American Jewish organizations, ranks last in Israeli Jews’ list of religious priorities, according to the poll. Only three percent of respondents see it as the most important issue, while eight percent rank it second.

The Western Wall debate has been in the public eye in Israel following a government decision in January to expand and upgrade the non-Orthodox prayer space there. Following backlash from haredi Orthodox political parties, however, the government is reexamining the decision, and its status is unclear.

“The battle over freedom of worship at the Western Wall is clearly a justified and important battle,” Rabbi Uri Regev, Hiddush’s founder, said in a statement issued Monday. “However, if the Jews of the Diaspora are interested in strengthening their partnership with Israeli Jews, it is critical to understand that Israelis attach far greater importance to the struggle against the Orthodox monopoly over marriage and divorce.”

Some 500 Israelis were contacted by Hiddush on March 29. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount