In Israel, today's Knesset approval of the controversial Professor Daniel Friedmann as the next justice minister is expected to help break the logjam over appointments of new judges to Israel's rabbinic courts. The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday that the Council for Rabbinic Judge Appointments has been deadlocked for over three years. 13 vacancies need to be filled, and a meeting of the Council is scheduled for March 29 to make the appointments. The picture is a complex one. Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) members control the Council by a 5-4 majority. Among them, there is disagreement on the allocation of power between Ashkenazi and Sephardi factions. The minority on the Council represent the modern-Orthodox movement, including one modern Orthodox feminist-- Sharon Shenhav -- who says that the appointment of Friedmann -- a professional who is not politically aligned-- could weaken Haredi control of the Council. Past justice ministers have used their power to convene or dismiss the Council to attempt to get compromise agreements on appointments.
Meanwhile, Haaretz reports on the problems being caused for a divorced woman by the Israeli Supreme Rabbinical Court's delays in deciding on the validity of the religious divorce-- get -- granted to her by her husband. The husband granted his wife a get, conditioned on their continuing to resolve other issues that had already been raised in the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court. Subsequently the wife filed a petition in the civil Family Court relating to her children's education, saying that this was never a part of the original rabbinical court proceedings, so there was no problem in raising it elsewhere. The Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court however said that the filing with the Family Court raised doubts about the validity of the original get. Meanwhile, relying on the get, the wife had already remarried and had a child with her new husband. If the get is cancelled, she will be seen as legally still married to her first husband-- and the child will be considered a "mamzer" who, under Jewish religious law, is limited in who he or she can marry.
