Interfaith Ketubahs: The Good, The Bad, and the Not-So-Ugly

Here at This is not a Ketubah, Yes it is, we create a lot of interfaith Ketubahs. We’re big fans of them. Our general viewpoint is: if makes couples happy, then we support it!

One question we often get is, do interfaith ketubahs satisfy the requirements of the Jewish law?

Our answer is….

First, Jewish law — unlike that of most other religions — is deeply decentralized. Every rabbi has his or her own opinion. So the key question above all is: what does your rabbi say? Since there is no central governing authority, if your rabbi supports it — then we support it, too. Of course, some rabbis will sign interfaith ketubahs — and others won’t.

Secondly, the closest that we come to having a centralized authority of ketubot is, what the government of Israel says. The government of Israel, as of today, doesn’t yet accept them. (This is due to the strong influence of the ultra-orthodox on the Israeli government.)

The only practical consequence of this is, if both of you want to make Aliyah and get Israeli citizenship. Then it might be a bit hard.

Note that, this is changing, slowly but surely. There is now a bill in the Knesset to allow for secular weddings in Israel, and to similarly allow secular clergy to perform weddings and sign ketubahs. Thus, in the not-distant future, this might even be a realistic possibility!

In conclusion, our suggestion is: the best strategy is to find the right rabbi. If your rabbi isn’t super over-the-top enthusiastic about your wedding — then it’s probably not the rabbi for you! There are thousands, probably tens of thousands, of rabbis out there, and so many of them are wonderful. (Unfortunately, there’s one-too-many less-than-wonderful rabbis out there: but c’est la vie.) You just want to find the right one for you two!

If you want any help finding the right rabbi — just ask us! We know hundreds!

By the way, you might want to check out our partner, Interfaith Ketubahs for some awesome interfaith ketubahs there, too!

Morgan
The Modern Ketubah Store from Team Ketubah