JEWISH FAMILY LAW IN ISRAEL – EXAMINATION OF FAMILY LAW IN MODERN DEMOCRACY

Jewish divorce depends exclusively on the husband’s consent, therefore, when the husband refuses to grant his wife a divorce document called a “Get,” he forces her to be chained to their marriage with no ability to obtain release. These wives are called “Agunot” or “chained wives” because they are chained to the marriage against their will. The Rabbinical Law, which was enacted in 1953, incorporated the Jewish religious rules in the Israeli legal system in matters of marriage and divorce. The adoption of the religious rules to the civil legal system created the problem of the chained wives in the Israeli legal system. The Rabbinical Law was enacted due to specific circumstances, which enabled its enactment, and was exceptionalized from other rules that were enacted back in that time. However, Israel has changed since its establishment 70 years ago. Modern Israel is an independent, solid and liberal democracy. The modern Israeli society is less traditional, more feminist and liberal and supports human rights. The research examines how the changes in the Jewish Israeli society, affected the legal system and especially the rabbinical system along the years, and whether the changes occurred in the rabbinical tribunal decisions are enough to protect the chained wives. These questions are examined by analysis of petitions submitted to the religious, civil and family courts in matters of family law, through an historical comparison of the same factors in different times from 1953 until today, in order to understand the changes that occurred in the Jewish Israeli society.The rabbinical court had published seventy-five cases regarding chained wives, the first case is from 1983 and the last one is from 2017. The elements which were examined were the time the chained wives waited for their Get, the arguments for the Get, whether the rabbinical court instructed a Get and whether the rabbinical court ordered to punish disobedient husband. In addition, the research examined two cases of the High Court of Justice and nine cases in the Family Court tribunal in which chained wives filed a civil suit for compensations. The research examines the arguments made by the petitioners, the decisions of the civil courts and the relation between civil courts to the rabbinical courts. Additional examination conducted on laws which were enacted since 1953 and proposed bills and analysis of the changes in the legal arena regarding matters of chained wives, women’s rights, human rights and democracy. The research found that the changes in the Israeli society drove the civil Israeli legal system to defend human rights and women’s rights eagerly together with protection of other democratic values. The behavior of the civil legal system, created pressure on the religious system to adjust to the new modern values. The religious system responded to these changes and tried to adjust. First, the rabbinical court changed its approach regarding abused women. Instead of supporting the husband completely as in the past, the rabbinical court gave its support to the abused women and helped them be released from marriage. Second change was made regarding the goodwill of the rabbinical tribunal to punish disobedient husbands, in order to help the chained wives to be release from their marriage.Third change and movement toward democratic rulings is regarding the ability of disobedient husband to extort their wives. While in the past the rabbinical court collaborated with husbands who extorted their wives, in recent years the rabbinical courts prevented extortions and defended women.These changes in the rabbinical court’s approach, proves that the rabbinical court reacts to the changes in the democratic Israeli society and makes progress towards democratic values.However, alongside these changes, due to the existence of the old narratives, the Rabbinical Law is still existing in the Israeli law book. The rabbinical tribunals are still preserving the traditional, patriarchal system in which women are being controlled by men, in addition, this system wastes women’s fertility years or all their lives by waiting for their Get or for the assistance of the court. For example, the process in the rabbinical court is exhausting and long, and during this process, the rabbinical court controls the chained wives lives without an option for them to remarry or have additional children. Additionally, the rabbinical court preserves traditional gender roles and gender control in its decisions. Therefore, even though the rabbinical tribunals made great changes in their approach regarding part of the matters concerning chained wives’ cases, these changes are not enough, and women are still discriminated against in these courts. In conclusion, the Israeli society, made a great progress over the years, and the civil courts as well as the rabbinical courts adjusted to this progress and reacted to it by granting more liberal decisions. However, these changes are not enough and as long as the Rabbinical Law and rabbinical courts governed absolutely over marriage and divorce, the chained wives’ problem cannot be solved. Therefore, marriage and divorce system should be revised to two separate systems, one which will preserve the Rabbinical Law and another separate system of civil marriage which separates between the divorce act and religious questions.In that way, the revised marriage system will save and defend the existence of Israel as Jewish and democratic state and will express exactly the current standing of the modern Israeli society as laws do.