The context: Israel’s reproductive landscape Israeli society is family-centered. Despite some erosion of the traditional family, nearly all Jewish and Arab Israelis live in nuclear families (90%). The vast majority of Israeli couples (95%) get married. They do so at a relatively young age (roughly 26)1 and raise their children together. Eighty-eight per cent of Israeli children up to age 17 live with their two parents.2 By the age of 65, only 3% of Israelis have never been married.3 Very few families – a mere 6% – are singleparented. Of these, only 15% are headed by a never-married woman; this low percentage is nonetheless roughly twice that of 2000.4

Personal status, including marriage, paternity and divorce, are all regulated by religious courts, each ruling its own community. Civil marriage is prohibited and inter-religious marriage, which requires conversion of one spouse, is extremely rare.