Three quarters of respondents in a survey about divorce in Israel said they supported taking the procedure out of the rabbinate’s hands and subjecting it to the authority of secular family courts. The survey on divorce, which under Israel’s laws is handled for Jewish couples by rabbinical judges with the authority of family court magistrates,…
In recent years, the power of social media has been harnessed to shame men who refuse to grant a “get,” or Jewish divorce, to their wives. YouTube, blogs, Facebook and an old-fashioned demonstration helped free last month. Porat, an Israeli woman who had been waiting for a divorce for eight years after her husband had…
In an unusual move, an Israeli rabbinical court excommunicated a scientist who refused to divorce his wife and ordered the publication of his name, photo and personal details. The Jerusalem-based rabbinical appeals court issued this week a herem – a writ of banishment — against Oded Guez, a physicist at Tel Aviv University, because he…
(JTA) — Following eight years of struggle, an Israeli mother named Adina Porat finally received a Jewish writ of divorce, or get, earlier this month, bringing back into the headlines the plight of “agunot” — so-called chained women trapped in marriages and unable to move on because their husbands refuse to grant a divorce. Porat’s…
Standing under the wedding canopy, dressed in a white tulle gown sprinkled with silvery glitter, I laughed in bliss. I felt young, beautiful, loved and admired. My designer gown, my handpicked white calla lilies, my many friends — everything was perfect. As my husband slipped the ring on my finger, taking me as his wife…
Rabbi Jay “Yaakov” Goldstein was sentenced to eight years in prison for his participation in a ring that violently attempted to coerce Jewish men to grant their wives religious divorces. Goldstein, 61, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced in a statement….
A New York rabbi who participated in a ring that violently attempted to coerce Jewish men to grant their wives religious divorces has been sentenced to 38 months in prison. Martin Wolmark, 57, of Monsey, was sentenced Monday in a U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, The Associated Press reported. Wolmark was one of…
Tamar Epstein, the prominent “chained woman” whose right to remarry under traditional Jewish law was long stymied, may have finally found two Orthodox rabbis willing to help her wed again. But her fate in the broader Jewish community — and the fate of any children she may have — is anything but ensured. Epstein, who…
100% of profits support our journalism
