In an extraordinarily rare transfer, an official rabbinic court annulled the marriage of a Jewish Israeli woman whose husband has refused to grant her a spiritual invoice of divorce for the previous 5 years, the court introduced Monday.
Two years in the past, Oded Guez fled the nation utilizing a solid passport to flee the sanctions and public shaming the rabbinic court had ordered towards him for refusing to grant his spouse a get, or spiritual divorce.
On Monday, a Haifa rabbinical court stated it had discovered a authorized solution to enable Guez’s spouse, who has not been named, to remarry, even with out receiving a invoice of divorce.
“After intensive discussions, during which the court heard testimony and professional opinions and evaluations, and after great effort by the court, it was decided today to nullify the marriage and to allow Mrs. Guez to end her status as a ‘chained woman,'” the court stated in a assertion. “This means that Mrs. Guez’s status is like that of a single woman who has never married.”
The court stated that the main points of the authorized mechanism by which it nullified the marriage was confidential.
“I am pleased that one of the most difficult ‘chained wife’ case that the court has dealt with has come to an end,” stated Rabbi David Malka, director of the federal government appointed Rabbinical Courts. “This demonstrates once again that the court takes all the measures at its disposal — both operational and within Jewish law, and leaves no stone unturned in its huge efforts to bring relief to all chained women in the State of Israel.”
Guez is at the moment awaiting extradition to Israel from Belgium, the place he was captured after a manhunt throughout a number of European international locations, after the rabbinic court discovered he had dedicated a prison offense.
In 2016, Guez was fired from his place at Bar Ilan University, after the Jerusalem rabbinical court excommunicated him and ordered the publication of his identify, photograph, and private particulars.
The transfer got here a week after the Rabbinical High Court of Appeals issued a herem — a writ of excommunication — towards Guez.
The rabbinical court’s herem stated Guez was to not be honored, hosted, allowed to attend synagogue, and even spoken to, “until he relents from his stubbornness and listens to his betters, and unchains his wife, and gives her a get [religious divorce].”
In Judaism, ladies who should not given a get, or Jewish divorce, by their husbands are generally known as agunot or “chained women,” as they can't remarry in response to Orthodox Jewish legislation. Any youngsters they've out of wedlock could not marry underneath Orthodox legislation.
In Israel, rabbinical tribunals perform as household courts for Jewish residents, and are half of a common judiciary that additionally consists of Islamic Sharia courts. These spiritual tribunals have the authority to grant little one custody and impose heavy fines and even jail sentences.
The annulment comes two weeks after a personal rabbinical court, headed by Rabbi Daniel Sperber and convened by the Center for Women’s Justice, annulled a marriage by which the husband refused to grant his spouse a invoice of divorce for 23 years, in what's believed to be probably the most excessive case of a chained woman within the State of Israel.
The heart stated its precedent paved the best way for the state rabbinic court to make a comparable ruling.
A source who was concerned within the rabbinic court system advised the Center for Women’s Justice that he had little question that there was a connection between Tzviya Gorodetsky’s annulment and the timing of the Guez ruling.
The group additionally criticized the court for not publicizing the authorized mechanism by which it freed Guez’s spouse. “We think that the rabbinic court should be more transparent and publicize an important ruling like this,” the group stated in a assertion.
While welcoming Monday’s ruling, the group additionally blamed the court for issuing sanctions towards Guez that led him to flee the nation and precipitated hurt to each him and his spouse. “We hold the rabbinic court accountable for creating this problem in the first place by not utilizing the legal Jewish tools at their disposal from the outset, instead turning to shaming tactics which only exacerbated the situation,” the group stated.
Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud) praised the ruling on Twitter. “everybody, whether man or woman, deserves the right to freedom and it is incumbent on the state institutions guarantee that,” she wrote.
MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) posted on Twitter that, “When the court wants to act it can do so.”