According to an Israeli law passed in 2013, rabbis like Elli Fischer who perform halakhic marriages outside the purview of the chief rabbinate can be punished with up to two years in prison. But unlike other religious critics of the institution—which comprises not just the two chief rabbis but an entire network of local rabbis, religious courts, and kashrut supervisors, along with a bureaucratic apparatus for performing marriages and conversions—Fischer believes that it cannot be reformed but must be fundamentally changed so as to limit its power:
The problem with the chief rabbinate and the related Ministry of Religious Services is not that they have deviated from their historical mission and are now malfunctioning. By design, the chief rabbinate reduces rabbis to bureaucrats. As a government agency like any other, it is subject to partisan wrangling and the temptations of patronage and corruption. Worse, it is particularly ill-suited to functioning as a government bureaucracy. [As a] historical institution, the [Jewish clergy] traditionally functioned on the basis of collegial trust, the flexibility to address unique circumstances, and tolerance of local differences. . . . [Forcing it to become] part of a rigid, regulated, centralized, and bureaucratic regime . . . has made it monstrous.
In recent polls, 71 percent of Israeli Jews expressed dissatisfaction with the chief rabbinate and about 65 percent favored its dissolution. But what does “dissolution” mean in this context? What does the growing chorus of Israelis who demand “separation” of religion and state want?
It turns out that “separation” is not exactly the right word for what Israelis want. Even if it were, it would be politically unattainable. . . .
The goal, therefore, must not be to separate the Jewish religion from the Jewish state but to minimize the degree to which religious institutions exercise the coercive power of the state.
Read more on Jewish Review of Books: https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1917/why-i-defy-the-israeli-chief-rabbinate/