Buenos Aires – An Argentinean tourist in Israel was stopped at Ben Gurion International airport and prevented from returning to Buenos Aires, following a petition by his former wife to the rabbinical court in Israel.
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The Argentinean Jewish man, who has not been named, traveled from Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv in February to participate in a friend’s wedding. He and his former wife, who also has not been identified, got married under civil law and also in a religious ceremony in Argentina, and divorced under civil law five months later.
On February 1 she presented her case in a rabbinical court in Israel, where marital issues are under the jurisdiction of religious tribunals that act as family courts.
Under Jewish law, a marriage cannot be dissolved unless the man consents to a get, a Jewish ritual divorce. Rabbinical courts cannot force a man to give his wife a get, but they can impose harsh punishments and public shaming on someone the judges determine is unjustly withholding a get and turning women into what is known as “agunot,” or “chained women.”
The Argentinean man must remain in Israel for at least five more days. On April 30 he must present himself to the rabbinical tribunal.
This is reportedly the first Argentinean case of an agunah suing her former husband in Israel for a get.
Argentinean media, including the daily Clarin, in covering the issue presented the case by discussing the movie “Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem,” an Israeli film that depicts the five-year legal struggle of an Orthodox wife to obtain a religious divorce, in trying to explain the dilemma of the “chained women.”
Agunot are not allowed to remarry under Jewish law, and any children they have with a new husband in a civil marriage are considered illegitimate.
One month ago 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.
As long as they also go after the females who play games with their kids using them as pawns etc.. and/ or demanding large money.
It takes two to tango
good a man should not be able to use a get as revenge
How about deporting pedophiles? Let’s pass THAT law!
Spare us the bogus comparisons . A man can eventually get his heter to marry a second wife . The system will never be fair until a woman can write her own get and give it to the man , or get a secular marriage in the first place and a then a normal divorce .