Chief Rabbi Orders Diaspora Couples to Take the Aids Test Before Marriage

Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi has ordered every Jewish couple in the Diaspora to be tested before marriage for infection with the virus that causes AIDS.

But the halachic ruling, issued by Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu, exempts Israelis for the time being, on the grounds that the sexually-transmitted disease is less prevalent here than elsewhere.

“If, God forbid, the disease increases to worrisome proportions here, the Chief Rabbinate will mandate that couples undergo AIDS testing before marriage” in Israel, Eliahu said.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv’s safe-sex education campaign suffered a setback when the municipal board that approves outdoor advertising bowed to religious pressure to remove a poster featuring a condom with a smiling face at its tip.

The board acted on a complaint by Rabbi Yona Metzger of North Tel Aviv.

The panel was established several months ago after the Agudat Yisrael and other Orthodox parties complained in the Knesset about “lewd advertising” on bus shelters and other billboards that offend the sensibilities of pious Jews.

Chief Rabbi Mordechai issued his decree after an unidentified rabbi from a Diaspora community asked him if testing for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, should be made compulsory, considering the rapid spread of the virus.

He ruled that religious marriage registrars must not allow a couple to marry unless they have been tested.

Decrees by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate are not binding on Jewish communities anywhere, the majority of which are not Orthodox. But it could affect Israeli couples who have no recourse to civil marriage.