marriage under Israeli law, and therefore, Florida law does not recognize the relationship as a marriage. Arguments for and against Since the establishment of the rabbinical courts, the status quo agreement has been strongly supported by the religious community, but criticized by others. The main argument of the supporters of the system is that a change of the status quo agreement will divide the Jewish people in Israel between those who marry according to Jewish religious standards and those who marry in a civil marriage. Civil marriages would not be registered or scrutinized by the rabbinate. In certain circumstances, such as when a woman who was previously married according to Jewish religious standards entered into a civil marriage without obtaining a religiously-valid divorce decree (get), the children produced by civil marriages could be considered illegitimate or mamzerim, which would prohibit them from marrying any Jew who was not also a mamzer. Opponents of the status quo agreement consider the system to be contrary to people's civil rights. In 2011, roughly 9,000 couples registered with the Central Bureau of Statistics that they were married overseas. Although most of the debate relating to civil marriage in Israel is conducted in the Jewish community, the issue has the same implications for all other recognized religious communities in Israel. Support for religious marriages Supporters of the status quo agreement argue that: When people are married according to Jewish law and subsequently divorce civilly, children from a subsequent marriages of the woman will be mamzerim, who are severely limited by Jewish law in whom they can marry. This, together with acceptance of non-Orthodox conversions, will split the Jewish people into two groups that cannot marry one another. Marriages in the rabbinical court preserve the holiness of the state of Israel, and add a spiritual and religious dimension of family purity according to Jewish religious laws. Civil marriage will lead to assimilation and intermarriage. Marriage in the rabbinical court, it is argued, is a guarantee to the continuation of the existence of the Jewish population in the state of Israel. A secular legislator is incapable of understanding the importance of religious halakha standards to the religious community. From a religious standpoint, a religious ceremony causes no harm, even though it imposes halakhic standards on non-religious Israelis — it is even considered by the religious community to be a mitzvah, a noble deed. Support for civil marriages