“Getting” Serious: Religious Divorce in Israel

Jeremy D. MorleyA firestorm has arisen in Israel after a man who has been sanctioned by a rabbinical court in Haifa was allowed to enter the Knesset this week, upon the invitation of a right-wing American-born Israeli politician. Divorce in Israel is the exclusive province of the religious courts, although both civil courts and religious courts may determine the financial consequences of a divorce as well as child custody issues. A Jewish religious divorce requires that the husband choose to provide the wife with a bill of divorce known as a get. If a Jewish wife who is separated from her husband does not receive (and accept) a get, she cannot remarry in a religious ceremony. Indeed, if she legally remarries in a secular ceremony before receiving a get, she is considered an adulteress under Jewish law.Rabbinical courts in Israel have issued sanctions to seek to compel husbands to deliver a get to their estranged wives. Thus, the Jerusalem Post reports that the Haifa…

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