Showing posts with label Rabbinical Courts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rabbinical Courts. Show all posts

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Court Enforces Arbitration Award Requiring Husband to Furnish Jewish Bill of Divorce

In S.I. v. M.I., (NJ App., March 22, 2024), a New Jersey state appellate court held that a husband was required to comply with an arbitration agreement he had signed that required him to accept Rabbi David Twersky's decision on his obligation to give his wife a get (Jewish bill of divorce). The rabbi ordered giving of a get, but the husband refused to comply. The trial court declined to confirm the arbitration award because it concluded that it could not order a party to carry out a religious act.  The court of appeals reversed, saying in part:

Here, confirmation of the award can be granted under neutral principles of law and without interpretation of religious doctrine.  We therefore conclude the Establishment Clause is not violated because the parties' arbitration agreement regarding a get serves the "purpose of enforcing the parties' contractual obligations" and "encouraging divorce litigants to resolve disputes by negotiating and entering" into marital agreements....

Additionally, enforcement does not infringe on the Free Exercise Clause as the parties voluntarily entered into the MOU arbitration provision and agreement....

Confirmation of the award strictly required a determination of defendant's contractual obligation.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Former Editor of Yiddish Children's Magazine Sues Rabbinical Courts and Others Under RICO and Sherman Act

Suit was filed last month in a New York federal bankruptcy court against several rabbinical courts, rabbis, and other defendants charging Sherman Act and RICO violations. Plaintiff was the co-owner of a Yiddish language children's magazine who claims his former partner conspired with others to destroy his business. (Full text of 93-page complaint in In re Paneth v. Reiner, (ED NY Bkrptcy, filed 1/17/2024)). Shtetl has published a lengthy summary of the complaint, saying in part:

... Paneth claims that investor David Reiner used money and influence to sway leading Haredi rabbinical courts to coerce Paneth into a rabbinic arbitration process over disputes relating to the operation and management of Kindlein magazine.

... Ultimately, the complaint says, the rabbinical courts and Reiner collectively violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by colluding to put Paneth out of business and thereby eliminate Reiner’s only competition. They also sought to deprive Paneth of any employment opportunities and to ostracize him from the Hasidic world, the complaint says.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Israel Expands Rabbinical Court Divorce Jurisdiction To Cover Recalcitrant Non-Israeli Husbands

On Monday, Israel's Knesset passed a new law giving Israeli Rabbinical Courts jurisdiction over divorces outside of Israel between non-Israelis where a Jewish husband has refused to give his estranged wife a Jewish bill of divorce (a get). The court however can act only when the husband subsequently is physically present in Israel. Jerusalem Post reports:
The legislation, which is a temporary three-year law, allows the Rabbinical Courts to hear a case involving a couple in which neither spouse is Israeli, on one of three conditions: if there is no rabbinical court where the couple lives to deal which can hear the case; the couple has not been in front of a rabbinical court for four months; or if a husband refuses to give a divorce after a rabbinical court in the Diaspora ruled that he must do so and made “reasonable efforts” to enforce its decision....
The rabbinical courts in Israel can impose sanctions on recalcitrant spouses to persuade them to divorce, such as revoking driving licenses, revoking passports, placing restrictions on their bank accounts, and even imprisoning them for extended periods of time.
But such sanctions are not at the disposal of rabbinical courts in the Diaspora since they are not state institutions....

Monday, March 19, 2018

Proposed Knesset Bill Would Extend Israeli Rabbinical Court Jurisdiction Extraterritorially

JTA reports on an interesting family law bill that passed the first of three readings in Israel's Knesset earlier this month.  Jewish religious law, enforced in personal status matters in Israel by the country's Rabbinical courts, requires that a husband give his wife a "get" (bill of divorce)  in order for a divorce to be valid.  Under current law, Israel's Rabbinical courts can impose penalties, including fines and jail, to pressure an Israeli husband to give  his wife a "get." The proposed new legislation would extend jurisdiction of Israeli Rabbinical courts extraterritorially to any Jewish man who is unjustly withholding a "get."  Israeli courts could then fine or imprison the husband if he travels to Israel.  According to Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis:
Today among Jews in Europe, everyone has relatives in Israel, or they’re thinking they might be moving there or forced to move there.  So this threat of a problem may make a lot of reluctant husbands free their wives.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Israel's High Court Says Women Must Be Allowed To Serve As Rabbinical Court Administrators

Times of Israel reports that Israel's High Court of Justice ruled yesterday that women must be allowed to serve in administrative positions as directors of rabbinical courts.  Previously they have been precluded from serving by a rule providing that to be eligible for that administrative position, the person must be eligible to serve as a city rabbi.  According to the Times:
The new requirements ordered by the court on Wednesday are that the candidate be a resident of Israel, possess a rabbinical court advocate license or a law practicing license along with a master’s degree in Jewish law or Talmud, have at least seven years of experience in rabbinical court appearances, and possess “character and lifestyle befitting a director of rabbinical courts.”

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Israel's Rabbinical Courts Grapple With Unrealistic Marriage Contract Terms

In Israel, an interesting contract question is being increasingly faced by state rabbinical courts that have jurisdiction over divorce actions. Traditional Jewish marriage ceremonies involve the husband signing a ketubah, or Jewish wedding contract.  The traditional form of the ketubah  includes the pledge of a sum of money which must be paid to the wife upon the husband's death or upon divorce. (Background.) Again traditionally the amount was set at "200 zuz" which has been seen as equating to around $750 (US).  However it has become a custom in Israel for grooms to demonstrate their love for their bride by inflating the amount in the ketubah by large multiples.  That is background to this report yesterday from JTA on a request from Jerusalem's regional rabbinical court to the Chief Rabbinate to limit the practice by capping the amount that can be set out in the ketubah to 1 million Israeli shekels ($264,000 US):
The unusual request earlier this month follows a divorce in which a man’s ex-wife demanded he pay her 555,555 shekels — approximately $145,000 — because that was the sum he pledged to pay on his ketubah.... Her ex-husband argued that he made the pledge as a testament of his love and appreciation for her, not thinking it would be legally binding.....  
Many grooms pledge sums they cannot afford, attaching many zeros to the number 18 – which is associated with life because of Jewish numerology – or the 555,555 figure, which is especially popular among Sephardic Jews who believe it is lucky. The custom of reading out the ketubah to the wedding guests adds incentive to name high figures, which the court defined as unrealistic.
The panel of three rabbinical judges ... reviewing the divorce case in question was divided, with one judge ruling in favor of the ex-wife’s demand. But his colleagues were of the opinion that the ex-husband should not be made to pay the full sum[, and] finally awarded the woman the equivalent of $31,600 from her ex-husband, or 120,000 shekels.

Monday, July 06, 2015

Israel's Cabinet Strengthens Ultra-Orthodox Control of Religious Status Matters

Times of Israel reports that Israel's Cabinet on Sunday took two steps that place personal status matters of Israeli Jews more firmly under control of the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate.  First the Cabinet withdrew a measure that made its way through the Knesset's Law Committee last year that would have expanded from four to thirty the number of religious courts that could conduct conversions to Judaism.  The new courts made up of municipal rabbis would have loosened somewhat the tight restrictions on conversion presently in effect.  The second Cabinet vote placed rabbinical courts under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Religious Services instead of the Justice Ministry which oversees Christian and Muslim religious courts.  The change places rabbinical courts-- with their authority over marriage and divorce-- under the authority of Religious Affairs Minister David Azoulay who belongs to the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party. These steps resulted from the coalition agreements negotiated between political parties after the most recent Knesset election. (See prior posting.)

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Israeli State Rabbinical Court Fines Mother For Refusing To Have Son Circumcised

Haaretz and  Failed Messiah report that in Israel, the Supreme Rabbinical Court on Sunday denied an appeal from an Oct. 29 decision of the Netanya Rabbinical Court (see Jewish Press, Nov. 7) imposing a fine of  NIS 500 ($140 US) per day on a woman who is refusing to have her one-year old son circumcised. The woman is in the midst of divorce proceedings with her husband who is seeking to force the circumcision. The boy was not circumcised at 8 days of age because of a medical condition, and subsequently, with her husband's agreement, the woman decided "she couldn't do that to my son." There is no circumcision requirement in Israeli civil law.  During the divorce proceedings the husband changed his mind. The appeals court judges apparently concluded, however, that the mother was now refusing to have the boy circumcised as a way to force a reconciliation with her husband. The judges also indicated their concern that allowing a Jewish Israeli woman to leave her son uncircumcised would encourage the anti-ritual circumcision movement in Europe and the United States. The mother argued in court that only Israel's civil family court has jurisdiction to order a circumcision, but the rabbinical court concluded that it also had jurisdiction of the dispute that arose in a divorce proceeding. The mother plans to appeal the decision to Israel's High Court of Justice.