Rabbinic Court Challenges Israel's Supreme Court

In Israel today, the Jerusalem Post reports that another chapter has begun in the struggle between rabbinic courts and civil courts over the extent of their respective powers. Two months ago Israel's Supreme Court, rejecting a ruling of the High Rabbinic Court, ruled that a rabbinic court could not permit a husband in a divorce case to present a video of his wife's sexual exploits because it violated the wife's privacy rights. However now three judges on Netanya's regional rabbinic court have ruled that the video can be used to force the unfaithful wife to accept a writ of divorce (get). The rabbis held that under Jewish law, the husband is obligated to divorce his wife after viewing the content of the video even if the video was obtained illegally. In the past few months the rabbinic courts have launched an aggressive offensive after an April Supreme Court ruling curtailing rabbinic courts' jurisdiction over monetary matters.