On International Women's Day, activists and observers lament the tight rabbinate control over marriage and divorce in Israel, with few changes in the system expected anytime soon
The 5 Towns Jewish Times
December 23, 2020
In a rare legal development, a court in Western Europe fined a man that the Israeli Rabbinical Courts had identified as unlawfully refusing to grant his wife a get. The court had issued a fine of 500 euros for every day the man refused to issue the document. Two days later, he agreed and his wife received her divorce earlier this week.
The developments came following the intervention of the Yad La’Isha Legal Aid Center of Ohr Torah Stone who had referred the case to the court in the Western European city. Yad La’Isha’s lawyers presented a detailed brief explaining the phenomenon of “get refusal” in Jewish law, demanding that the man, a citizen and legal resident of the European country, be held legally accountable for the refusal. The Court agreed with Yad La’Isha’s arguments and imposed a fine of 500 euros per day of continued refusal, up to an amount of 50,000 euro.