Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli Bill Would Punish Foreign Jews Who Refuse To Divorce Their Wives

(JTA) — The Knesset passed in a first reading draft legislation that would expose to legal action in Israel Jewish non-citizens who refuse to grant their wives a divorce.

Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, on Wednesday celebrated as “extremely significant” the Knesset’s passing last week in a first reading of an amendment to the law on the rabbinical courts. If it passes a third reading, the bill would extend the courts’ jurisdiction to any Jew who is found to be withholding unjustly his consent to a divorce.

Led by the government and opposition lawmakers, the legislation could lead to the fining and imprisonment of Jewish tourists while in Israel and is part of an escalation in judiciary practices against recalcitrant husbands, which is occurring amid growing criticism over gender discrimination in Orthodox Judaism.

In Orthodox Judaism, a marriage cannot be undone unless the man consents to a “get” — the Hebrew word for divorce. Rabbinical courts, which in Israel finction as family courts, cannot force a man to give his wife a get but they can impose harsh punishments, including jail time, on any party the judges determine are unjustly withholding a get and turning women into what is known in Judaism as agunot, or “chained” women.

But these powers in rabbinical courts run by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate are currently limited to Israeli citizens, said Goldschmidt. “The thought behind extending the jurisdiction to non-Israelis is that in today’s world, Jews, and especially observant ones, are tied to Israel. If they want to avoid legal trouble there, they will unchain their wives,” Goldschmidt, who has lobbied for the new legislation, told JTA.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.