Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War

7. Human Rights Violations in Israeli Rabbinic Courts

164 s e v e n Human Rights Violations in Israeli Rabbinic Courts After nearly sixty years of statehood, the rift between Israel’s religious and secular publics has never been more intense. The policy of giving the Orthodox control over non-Orthodox Jew’s marriages, divorces and burials may have had some success in maintaining ethno-racial unity . . . but this success pales in comparison to the policy’s utter failure to consolidate the Israeli Jewish nation into a people that sees itself as a unified whole. Racial unity is a tenuous glue for religious groups. It purchases nominal unity — the ability of a particular group of people to be considered “Jewish” in the eyes of Orthodox Jewish law— at the cost of embitterment, antipathy, and, even, the risk of civil war. Steven V. Mazie, Israel’s Higher Law The stories told in this book show that what happens in Israeli rabbinic courts consistently violates basic human rights and the rule of law. The conduct and judgments of these courts infringe on the right to freedom of conscience, the right to equality before the law, the right to privacy, the right to due process, the right to property, the right to liberty, and, perhaps above all, the right to marry and have a family. To put an end to these transgressions the state-backed Orthodox rabbinic court monopoly must be disbanded and replaced by a rich and vibrant mosaic of voluntary rabbinic courts that will stand alongside a transparent , secular, unified, and unabashedly liberal civil system of marriage and divorce that protects the human rights of all citizens. Even allowing the existing religious courts to continue serving as a parallel divorce regime would be a H u m a n R i g h t s V i o l at i o n s 165 mistake. Apart from their detachment from modern sensibilities and inherent miscarriages of justice, they carry no edifying symbolic significance, they do not minimize the number of mamzerim (and may even increase it), and they hinder rather than enhance the unity of the Jewish people. Rabbinic infringements on human rights take on various forms. On the following pages, the manner in which rabbinic courts violate specific basic rights is discussed, with references to the stories of the agunot that we have told in the previous chapters. The Right to Freedom of Conscience Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Except for the Reluctant Aguna, all the women whose stories are told in this book and who married in Israel were married in religious, Orthodox ceremonies . Not only were these women given no choice in the matter, but the legal consequences were not explained to them. Quite the opposite. Marriage in accordance with the laws of Moses and Israel, and all preparations for such weddings, are venerated, sanitized, and introduced as the way to express one’s patriotic and Jewish duty. For example, on a rabbinate site explaining how to get married in Tel Aviv, it is written, “Establishing a Jewish home is the most firm and secure way of guarantying the existence of the Jewish People. Maintaining the unique Jewish character of the house is the way to guarantee a successful and happy married life” (Department of Marriage, n.d.). Certainly, none of our heroines were told that should their marriages fail, Torah law, which is the law of the state in this respect, binds them to their husbands’ will, indefinitely. We purposely began with the story of Clueless. This bride represents Everywoman , caught up with the pomp and ceremony and authenticity of her “Great Big Fat Jewish Wedding” and clueless as to the very legal and public consequences of the act of marrying in accordance with the laws of Moses and Israel. Nor was she aware of the fact that by being required to marry in this fashion, her freedom of conscience had been effectively appropriated by the state regarding a decision that was, or should have been, one of her most important. We purposely ended with the story of the Reluctant Agunah, the one bride M a r r i a g e a n d D i v o r c e i n t h e J e w i s h S tat e 166 who intentionally chose to express her freedom of conscience and...